Well, it looks like yesterday’s election will stal…
November 8th, 2006 | by Jeremy |Well, it looks like yesterday’s election will stall economic growth in Cleveland and Ohio.
Issue 3, which would have allowed slot machines at seven Ohio race tracks as well as Tower City and Nautica in downtown Cleveland, failed. I heard a variety of reasons to be against this issue — everything from the idea that it shouldn’t have been a constitutional ammendment, giving monopoly power to private businesses, poor distribution of revenues, problems with how the college scholarship money would have been handed out and people who think gambling is wrong for moral issues.
I don’t care the reason you voted against it. There will NEVER be an issue that’s perfect or that everyone agrees on. But the fact is that there will now be less economic growth in Cleveland than there would have been if Issue 3 passed. We lose out on jobs and tax revenue created by having to build new facilities at Nautica and Tower City to house the slot machines. We lose out on income tax from those who would have worked full time at those facilities. We lose out on the increase in traffic coming to downtown Cleveland to play at those slot machines. And of course we lose out on the actual revenue that would have come from the gambling and been distributed to economic growth and college scholarships. Thanks, Ohio.
Issue 2 increases the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85 an hour, starting in January. So someone working full time at a minimum wage job will now make an additional $3,536 per year. I’m sure they’ll spend it on something worthwhile, like a plasma TV. But where will business owners get this 33 percent increase in payroll for their full time minimum wage employees? Perhaps they’ll fire 33 percent of their workforce, which means I’ll have to wait even longer to get my large chili from Wendy’s for lunch. That inconveinience might make me decide to just make my own chili at home, which will further hurt Wendy’s revenue. And that means more layoffs. Maybe the people they fire can work at the new slot parlors downtown! Oh, wait…
Or maybe the businesses will raise prices by 33 percent. Suddenly that 33 percent increase for the full time minimum wage earner (now making a whopping $14,248 a year) becomes worthless because the stuff he spends his money on has just increased by 33 percent as well. Now I understand this doesn’t happen instantly, but you can’t just give people more money out of thin air. It has to come from somewhere. Same thing would happen if the government just printed $3 trillion dollars with nothing to back it up and gave $10,000 to every American. The value of that money would go down. It’s economics. You can’t just give people more money. You have to increase productivity.
Minimum wage wasn’t meant to be a permanent, living wage. If we really want to help people get out of poverty, should we really be making it easier for them to keep the most undesirable jobs our country has to offer? That $3,536 per year increase would buy over 40 credit hours of education at Cuyahoga County Community College. So wouldn’t that money be better spent educating people to get them out from behind the slurpee machine? If you give a man a fish…
At least Issue 18 passed, which will help fund the arts in Cuyahoga County by placing a 1.5 cent tax on every cigarette. That WILL help economic growth. Although, smokers can’t smoke those pricey cancer sticks in public anymore due to state Issue 5 passing…