Columbus Dispatch...
Year 1 unlike any other, Kasich says  
December 21, 2011 

Gov. John Kasich says of his 2011 agenda: “I’m not sure that we’re ever going to see anything like it in the future.” 

There were no “A’s,” “B’s” or “C’s” issued, but Republican John Kasich gives himself a “good” grade for his first year as Ohio’s 69th governor. 

“Eighty-three thousand jobs saved and jobs created; that makes me feel really good,” Kasich said, wrapping a bow around 2011 in his year-ending news conference at the Governor’s Residence in Bexley. 

Breaking from gubernatorial tradition, Kasich reviewed 2011 with the entire Statehouse press corps rather than meeting with individual media outlets. 

He said he has “regrets ... things I wish would’ve been done a little differently” in his first year running Ohio, but he also said he feels “pretty good about things” that happened in a year he doesn’t “think anyone’s seen anything like.” 

“I’m not sure that we’re ever going to see anything like it in the future,” Kasich said. 

Inarguably, 2011 was a year of sweeping changes proposed and, in many cases, implemented by the Kasich administration. Much of Kasich’s two-hour session with the news media yesterday was spent underscoring those changes. 

As an addendum to Kasich’s remarks, his staff distributed a five-page list of accomplishments from the year that included: balancing the budget without raising state taxes; beginning to reform Medicaid; eliminating the estate tax in 2013; selling a prison for $72 million; backing passage of “pill mill” legislation; adding $250 million to the state’s rainy-day fund; and shaking an extra $220 million from casino owners. 

A separate sheet from JobsOhio, Kasich’s privatized development agency that was one of several of his initiatives to stir up controversy this year, showed that the state extended incentives to 245 projects totaling 21,099 promised new jobs. The state also counts 61,686 jobs retained through similar incentive deals. 

But the news conference also was an opportunity for Kasich to build a narrative for how difficult he felt it was to introduce broad changes this year, and for the challenges ahead. 

Kasich found himself embroiled in controversy for much of the year over his support of Senate Bill 5, a Republican-backed measure to curb collective-bargaining power for public employees. He also caught heat this year for cutting more than $1 billion in funding from schools and local governments, his expansion of vouchers and charter schools, and some of his provocative remarks. 

“Rather than bringing our state together to solve problems, John Kasich has alienated and vilified Ohioans who disagree with him,” said Seth Bringman, communication director for the Ohio Democratic Party, in a written statement. “Unless Governor Kasich reaches across the aisle and stops attacking Ohio’s workers, he will spend the next three years as a lame duck.” 

When Kasich talked about the two-year, $55.8 billion state budget that was passed without a tax increase despite an $8 billion shortfall, he often spoke of its Medicaid reforms, his administration’s maintenance of programs for the poor and mentally ill and devising ways to keep nonviolent criminals out of prison. He said they are examples of how he cares about all Ohioans. 

“We were not going to run over people; it’s not in our nature,” said Kasich, who once warned lobbyists that they’d be “run over” by his bus if they weren’t on board. 

Kasich has increased state government’s reliance on efficiency measures such as helping agencies operate at a higher level at less cost. He said those measures were ignored previously because, “when people get introduced to it, they cry.” 

He said big-ticket items, such as a new school-funding formula and linking education and worker training to Ohio’s job market, are examples of “chronic problems” that might be even tougher to solve “because they involve cultural issues” prevalent in Ohio and across the country. 

Kasich also touted his administration’s efforts to boost economic opportunities by pushing “fracking” for oil and natural gas in shale rock, mostly in eastern and southeastern Ohio. 

He said the “regulation on shale is going to be extremely strong ... We don’t want yahoos coming into Ohio and damaging our environment.” Major companies want strong regulation, he said. 

On Senate Bill 5, Kasich reiterated the points he made after voters defeated Issue 2 61 percent to 39 percent on Nov. 8. He said the people had spoken but that schools and local governments would not be getting more state money to deal with their costs. 

“I know you folks are fixated on this. That was a time where the shark ate me,” Kasich said. “It’s just one thing that happened. And it was a big deal because there were a lot of problems and things like that, but you missed the story. And maybe someday the story will really be written about what happened here, about the unbelievable level of change that’s happened in the state of Ohio.” 

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