For a change Ohio leads! Years ago it was an amusement among several of my friends to identify industrial machinery that bore the name of an Ohio city. Cincinnati Milacron produced the best milling machines the world had ever seen. Then there was Mansfield tires and Cleveland drive line and u-joints. Ever heard of a Lorain drag line? How about a Lima lift crane? If not a Lima lift crane then maybe a Marion lift crane. What about Dayton axles? or Dayton wheels? or Dayton electric motors?
If Michigan was the automobile capital of the world Ohio was the machine tool capital of the universe. It built the tools that US industry used to build autos, aircraft, trucks, tractors, cranes, barges, and boats. At last Ohio has turned the corner and while recovering from a lost decade may take decades Ohio has shown leadership the rest of the nation would do well to follow. It killed the death tax.
Ohio's repeal of its estate tax, after nearly 120 years, may not lead to an avalanche of repeal activities around the country, but it's already having a positive effect. Last month, for example, Maine lawmakers doubled their estate tax exemption to $2 million from $1 million. Oregon lawmakers rejected a proposal to increase their estate tax, as did North Carolina. Momentum is moving in the right direction. While the death tax had little or no effect on the NCR's and TRW's it was horrendous to thousands of small business over the course of its life. Family farms and family business had to be sold or liquidated to pay the tax that accrued to the heirs of profitable and productive companies.
What most of the critics don't understand is that repeal of the estate tax ultimately means more tax dollars, not fewer. A 2009 Duquesne University study found that state and local governments lost some $3 in non-estate tax revenues for every $1 increase in federal estate tax revenue. Overall, the study calculated, eliminating the federal estate tax would boost state and local tax revenues by approximately $9.3 billion annually. With Ohio business owners now able to focus their energy and resources on growth and success, rather than on the survival of their businesses after they die, we can expect them to invest more money in those 200,000 businesses, hire more workers, and increase purchases—all of which will help increase the tax base. Tip your hat to John Kasich.
Don't forget Toledo Scale! Champion Spark Plugs. Libbey Glass. All local.
ReplyDeleteI am actually encouraged by Kasich's changes. The Ohio budget will make a big difference.
However there is significant movement for repealing SB5, as evidenced by the over one million signatures the referendum received to repeal it.
Just because people signed the repeal petition does not mean all those people will vote for its repeal, if Kasich's people and the tea party gets out in front of the campaign against SB5.
People need to know what's at stake.
Only Toledo scale qualifies. Remember it has to bear the name of an Ohio city. ie Lorain drag line or Dayton Motor.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Bucyrus cranes TP@P, saw them all over the place when I was a kid
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucyrus-Erie
Happy Independence Day to you and yours, sir
Ok RR I couldn't name them all and they were Bucyrus-Erie and Erie is in PA. There was also a Bay City but I think that's in MI. Happy Fourth to you too!
ReplyDeleteHey thanks Reaganite Republican. Toledo Scale was a big one and are antiques now, I guess. And Hoosierman, Bay City is in Michigan up by the thumb. I don't really remember Bucyrus cranes, myself. Just what we have around here. Dana, Stranahan, Champion, LOF, Libbey Glass are all old Toledo area names. Just a shadow of their former selves now, if even in existence.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is so much became obsolete so fast. National Cash Register I think was in Dayton. The old mechanical register took one hell of a lot of machine work. Computers did them in. They maybe around someplace- I know they left Dayton but they don't have to machine all those parts. Printing of course went they same way. There was an enormous amount of precision machine work in a linotype or monotype. We have a comparative advantage over China, Japan, and Germany and that is the abundance of cheap energy but we are squandering that by making coal expensive. Ohio was built by stocky men with big bellies and high school educations and damn near destroyed skinny men and women with MBA's
ReplyDeletewhoa! you sound like The One now. maybe thats why we are one of the brokest states. we need to get rid of computers and bring back cash registers.
ReplyDeleteNo I didn't say they caused overall unemployment but it does cause dislocations which are painful and not evenly distributed. Ohio paid its dues as it had to do but it went through this transition with backdrop of an anti-industrial prejudice, an aging demographic, bad government policy and so on. It could have been easier. Computers replaced tens of thousands of stenographers and switch board operators but that was not all visited on one state. No one misses most job losses in a growing economy.
ReplyDelete