Ohio Treasurer Backs Obama, Says Ohio Needs Fair Tax, Trade Policies from Washington

OhioNews Bureau

ONB COLUMBUS: Ohio State Treasurer Rich Cordray is arguably one of Ohio’s smartest and most accomplished leaders.

He has taken his down-ticket office, one Ohioans may be far less familiar with than other more high profile, headline-making offices like Governor, Attorney General or Secretary of State, and turned its charge to manage the state’s funds wisely to his advantage.

The one-time Jeopardy TV-show champion, a lawyer by trade and a Democratic by party affiliation who was selected an Olympic torchbearer for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, has built himself a chariot of fire he can ride into the heated battles over home foreclosures, credit crisis management, personal financial literacy and what changes Washington should make to give Ohio a helping hand out of its current slough of economic despond.

One of many elected Ohio leaders who were attended the 2008 Democratic Presidential Debate held at Cleveland State University in Downtown Cleveland last Tuesday, Cordray was in the “Spin Room” after the debate ended to field questions from reporters.

EPluribus Media’s OhioNews Bureau covered the historic event, and got comments from Cordray on the debate and on several key issues now in play in Ohio.

Cordray, who served in the Ohio House and as Franklin County Treasurer before being elected to his first statewide post in the fall of 2006 when Democrats clinched four of the five statewide offices, is an Obama supporter.

OBAMA INSPIRING

Phlegmatic in temperament like the candidate for president he supports, Cordray said he thinks Obama displays grace and poise and dignity, the attributes people want in a leader. Focused on the question despite the distractions oozing from the maddening crowd that filled the small gym at the Wolstein Center, site of the after-debate “Spin Room,” Cordray noted that the differences between the candidates on substantive issues is slight. “We argue over very narrow differences, and ignore the much broader frame work agreement they share,” he said.

“To me, it comes down to the fact that Sen. Obama inspires people. He’s capable of inspiring American people to rise up and have the coping confidence that they can solve their problems working with Washington.”

OHIO NEEDS FED POLICIES TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE JOBS

Regardless of whether his candidate, or Sens. Hillary Clinton or Republican John McCain ends up in the White House, Cordray said what he’d like to see the next president do is help Ohio grow the kind of sustainable jobs that will help the state work its way out of its current difficulties.

Speaking to what federal policies he’d like to see change, the oxford fellow said, “I’d like to see fair tax and trade policies that give our workers a level playing field to compete against people from all over the world. I think our workers do well when they have the opportunity to compete. Our manufacturing is incredibly productive and our exporting is rising. But I also think we need to fix the health care problem that continues to make us less competitive than rest of the world. Our people suffer under that problem and sometimes they can’t get the medical care they need without bankrupting themselves. It’s a tragedy when that happens,” he said.

STRICKLAND JOBS PROPOSAL WITHIN DEBT LIMITS

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, in his State of the State Speech earlier in the month, proposed the Build Ohio Jobs Program, a far-flung plan whose financing would come from the sale of state bonds. Republicans, who controlled all state offices for 16 years and who still the Ohio Senate and House by large and narrow margins, respectively, have questioned whether the state debt limit can accommodate Strickland’s borrowing plans.

Cordray said while there’s always a concern to make sure the state’s debt to revenue ratio is in balance, said Strickland’s proposal remains well within the five percent constitutional ceiling on debt. “It lays groundwork for the kind of long term investment that will move our state forward,” he said, adding, “Just because we’re having ups and downs in the economic cycle doesn’t mean we can afford to put off for several years the kind of long term investments that will help us grown the alternative energy sector; grow biomedical, which is a potential real growth area for this state, and lay that groundwork.

“What the Governor has proposed,” he said, “is the right thing to do.”

OHIOANS MUST BE FINANCIALLY LITERATE

One of Ohio’s black eyes is its leadership position in home foreclosures. Critics of mortgage brokers and the network of lenders and appraisers who they say conspired to dupe pie-eyed people who saw owning a home as proof positive they were one the road to achieving their version of The American Dream, say the lack of financial literacy played a big part in their gullibility to sign onto deals that were too good to be true.

Cordray agrees.

“Look at the mortgage foreclosure crisis and it shows right there,” he said of the need to have young adults become more financially literate when leave high school, so they’ll be better able to defend themselves against the wolves that await them when they enter the real world of money.

Cordray said “people allow themselves to be talked into or dream themselves into very bad loans. They have done that for the last several years, and I think people have no instruction in financial education. Either they’re maybe getting it at home, but many of them aren’t, or they’re learning from the school of hard knocks, and may care those mistakes around with them for years.” He said Ohio “cannot afford that any longer.”

Asked if financial literacy should become a more prominent part of Ohio’s Core Curriculum, as proposed by former Gov. Bob Taft and passed before he left office in 2006, Cordray could not agree more.

“You are preaching to the choir with me,” he said, clearly energized by the question. Speaking to Taft’s legacy of beefing up secondary education with more science and math, Cordray, who was managing Franklin County’s investments at the time, said new requirement that high school seniors will have some financial education before they graduate are good, but can be improved upon.

With Strickland's blessing, Cordray said his office has been working with the Ohio Department of Education, an agency not under the direct control of the Governor – although creating a Director of Education that would report to him was one of the proposal’s Strickland outlined in his State of the State speech -- to implement financial literacy courses and the the training of teachers to teach personal finance education that are necessary to it being successful.

“We’re getting districts ready so they will implement this in a meaningful way, but we also need to reach all those adults out there who are never going to find their way back to high school, and who need this help as well. That’s something we’re working very hard on in the State Treasurer’s Office,” said Cordray. He pointed to the launch of teacher academies that he said will be training over a thousand teachers by the end of summer.

Cordray pitched his personal financial literacy Website – Yourmoneynow – as an around the clock tool designed for all levels, from rudimentary of highly sophisticated, that he said is “a neutral, unbiased source that’s not trying to sell anybody any products.”

IF IT FEELS LIKE RECESSION, MAYBE IT IS

As one who is surrounded by money number crunchers and others who may call themselves economists and the like, Cordray said he was uncertain as to whether Ohio is in a recession or not.

“I don’t know how to answer that one,” he said, pausing uncharacteristically to think of an answer. “We’re in a slow down period, but it certainly feels that way for a lot of people in our neighborhoods and on Main Street.”

John Michael Spinelli is a former Ohio Statehouse government and political reporter and business columnist. He now serves as the OhioNews Bureau Chief for ePluribus Media Journal. Find ONB archives here.

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