Cost of Government Focus of Campaign

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Some of the partners in Advance Northeast Ohio are working to complete a research project that measures the cost of government in Northeast Ohio. That report should be completed soon, but it's clear that even before that work is done that the cost of government will become a hot political issue this summer and fall.

Bay Village Mayor Deborah Sutherland is running for Cuyahoga County Commissioner on a platform that is calling for large expenditure reductions at the county. Here is how the Plain Dealer described her position:

The county needs to end patronage by cutting more than 600 jobs, based on her review of the payroll and services in neighboring Summit County.

Sutherland said Summit has fewer county workers per capita and provides comparable services. By using the same per-capita rate as Summit, Cuyahoga County would have 646 fewer workers and could afford to return the sales tax to 7.5 percent, she said.

Incumbent Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones noted that the county has trimmed 1,000 workers since he was elected in 2002, and he dismissed Sutherland's call for lower government spending as campaign rhetoric.

As the cost of government in the region becomes clearer in the weeks ahead, I anticipate there will be a lot more conversations going on in the region like this one.

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Comments

# Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 06/15/2008 - 22:21.

...he [Jones]dismissed Sutherland's call for lower government spending as campaign rhetoric.

That is not what the Commissioner said. He dismissed her comments as campaign rhetoric and Commissioner Hagan called it "amateurish." Everyone is aware that the cost of government is rising, like the cost of just about everything and measures are needed to address this challenge. What was rhetoric was saying Summit County has X employees so Cuyahoga needs X employees.

Also, the per capita expenditures and per capita FTE's in the City of Bay Village are higher than Cuyahoga County and Bay faces a $2 million budget deficit.

Glass houses...