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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Press Release: Buckeye Institute

Contact: Lisa Gates, Vice President of Comms

(614) 224-3255 or Lisa@BuckeyeInstitute.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     March 5, 2018

More Than $18 Million Spent on The Buckeye Institute's
Top 10 List of Worst Capital Budget Requests
 
Ohio's Capital Budget Riddled with More Than $85 Million in Pork Spending
 

Columbus, OH -- Today, The Buckeye Institute unveiled its Top 10 Worst Capital Budget Requests of 2018, which total more than $18 million in spending. Buckeye's review of the capital budget also found more than $85 million in pork barrel or highly localized projects that should be paid for with private donations or through local efforts.
 
"As our Top 10 list shows, once again, Ohio's capital budget is riddled with pork projects that benefit narrow local interests and not larger state needs. If these, and other pork projects in the budget, were funded using local or private dollars, as they should be, Ohio could have at least $85 million more that it could spend on pressing state priorities, save, or better yet, return to taxpayers," said Greg R. Lawson, research fellow at The Buckeye Institute. "Policymakers should do more to heed our call to focus the capital budget on strengthening Ohio's physical and democratic infrastructure and move away from projects of predominately local interest. Simply put, it is hard to see how it benefits someone in Youngstown for Cincinnati to get a soccer stadium or how people in Cleveland benefit from renovations to COSI."
 
Buckeye's Top 10 Worst Capital Budget Requests of 2018
In its report in Principled Spending: Using Ohio's Capital Budget to Benefit Ohioans, Buckeye outlined three principles to guide policymakers - constrain the growth of state government, eliminate corporate and special interest welfare, and focus spending on the core functions of state government. The Buckeye Institute also urged policymakers to use the 2018 capital budget to strengthen Ohio's physical and democratic infrastructure. 


A review of the capital budget shows that more than $1 billion is being used to strengthen Ohio's physical infrastructure and there is no money in the capital budget being used to strengthen Ohio's democratic infrastructure.

 
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Founded in 1989, The Buckeye Institute is an independent research and educational institution - a think tank - whose mission is to advance free-market public policy in the states.
The Buckeye Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit, and tax-exempt organization, as defined by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. As such, it relies on support from individuals, corporations, and foundations that share a commitment to individual liberty, free enterprise, personal responsibility, and limited government. The Buckeye Institute does not seek or accept government funding.

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