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President Biden bowed out and Ohio Democrats back.

Vice President Harris, a proposed amendment to overhaul redistricting is headed to the November ballot.

And a conversation about the economic growth in the Appalachian parts of the state.

All this week in the state of Ohio.

Oh.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Sarah Donaldson in for Karen Kasler.

Ohio's delegation for the Democratic National Convention voted this week to pledge its votes to Vice President Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed her.

Of the thousands of delegates heading to the DNC in Chicago next month, about 150, give or take, are from Ohio.

They say unanimously they'll vote for Harris.

That news came as Harris secured the necessary number of pledged votes across the country to become the nominee next month.

But Democratic State Senator Bill dmorris says every delegate essentially became a free agent following Biden's announcement.

No delegate from Ohio or otherwise, is bound to vote for Harris come convention time.

Still, waves of Democrats across the country, including elected officials at every level of government, rallied behind Harris starting Sunday afternoon.

Some of Ohio's youngest delegates say they're feeling energized.

I almost have to laugh because it is just knowing that if I'm being completely honest, I. I wish I could have said that we were as enthusiastic about, a rematch between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump as we are now.

But it would be a lie.

Ethan Nichols and Patrick Houlihan are both in their early 20s and from the greater Cincinnati region.

They're serving as first time delegates at the DNC.

Nichols voiced his vote for Harris minutes after Biden withdrew.

have nothing against an open convention.

I think that would be incredibly healthy for our party.

But at the same time, I do believe that as as delegates and as, as a party and as voters, we do need to coalesce behind the vice president.

Houlihan was still thinking it over Monday morning.

By the evening, he said he would cast his ballot for Harris, calling her the Democrats best shot.

But the curveballs have created some nerves.

was a pledged delegate.

I didn't have to really worry much about the convention because I was going to go there and nominate the Biden-Harris ticket and engage in the festivities.

I'm still going to be engaging in the festivities, In more recent history, conventions have been largely ceremonial, with each party's nominee often decided earlier in the primary election season.

But Ohio's delegates commended Biden for bowing out.

And for him to step aside and say he knows that the vice president is extremely qualified and ready to take on this, not only this tough campaign, but also the incredibly important job of being the leader of the free world means a lot.

Ohio political scientists tell us it's unlikely Biden's exit would swing Ohio in the Democrats favor when it comes to the presidential race.

But they say the shift could boost Democratic U.S.

Senator Sherrod Brown in his tough reelection bid against Republican opponent Bernie Marino by bringing out Democrats who were not excited about a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump.

It's official.

When Ohio voters go to the polls this fall, they will decide whether to pass an anti gerrymandering constitution amendment, retooling the way the state draws its political districts.

Secretary of state Frank Larose said Tuesday the coalition behind its citizens, not politicians, submitted enough signatures to make the 2024 ballot.

It takes months and lots of money to mount a successful effort to make the ballot in Ohio.

About three weeks ago, citizens, not politicians, delivered more than 730,000 signatures to LA office.

That's almost double the more than 414,000 valid signatures they needed to qualify.

Paid circulators and volunteers have been out getting them at events like farmers markets and festivals.

And by going door to door, the paper petitions were stacked high in more than one U-Haul truck at La Rosa's office after delivery.

County by county Board of Elections staffers across Ohio.

Some seasonal validated stacks and stacks by hand.

Cuyahoga County hired more than 50 signature verification and quality assurance staffers this year to prepare for the citizens, not politicians petitions.

The elevator pitch for the proposed amendment is to throw out the current redistricting process under citizens, not politicians proposal.

The state would establish an independent commission of 15 members, five Republicans, five Democrats and five independents.

It's a bipartisan effort, in part led by former Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor.

A federal court has granted an injunction against a state provision in the 2023 law that limits who can assist Ohioans when they cast absentee ballots.

The League of Women Voters of Ohio and American Civil Liberties Union first filed the lawsuit last year, arguing it was discriminatory against Ohio's disabled population.

And this week, the Ohio Eastern Division District Court blocked the state from enforcing that part of the law, which only allows authorized individuals to handle absentee ballots on another voter's behalf, including by returning a signed and sealed ballot to a Board of Elections.

Grandchildren, cousins and non familial caregivers are all excluded from that list.

The Ohio League's executive director, Jen Miller, says without the court action, many who would ordinarily assist a voter with disabilities could have been hit with felony charges.

We know that a lot of voters are challenged with just reaching the mailbox, sealing the envelope, or getting it to the one county drop box.

The court says the law violated federal provisions that protect Americans who are disabled.

The state, which is defending the law, could appeal the ruling.

Ohio's unemployment rate was 4.2% in May 2024, up from 4% in April.

That's almost the same as the nation's jobless rate of 4.1%, and it's off from Ohio's all time record low for unemployment of 3.3%, set last July.

Meggs and Jefferson counties are tied for the highest jobless rates among Ohio's 80 counties, and nearly all the counties with the highest unemployment numbers are in Appalachian Ohio.

Researchers at Ohio state University.

Swank program in rural urban policy.

And the Ohio River Valley Institute say they've seen a way that rural communities, particularly those in Appalachian Ohio, can revive their economies with growth, not just projects that can be subject to boom and bust cycles.

Their findings are summarized in a report called A Bigger Bang Approach to Economic Development and Application to Rural Appalachian Ohio Energy Boomtowns.

It centers on the coal mining town of Centralia between Tacoma, Washington and Portland, Oregon.

The mine's owner announced in 2006 it would be closed by 2025, affecting about a thousand jobs in an area of around 15,000 people.

But the mine owner agreed to set up a $55 million fund, with the money going into three categories energy efficiency and weatherization, economic and community development, and clean energy technology investments.

Centralia saw a big turnaround after that.

My colleague Karen Kasler, sat down with the report's authors in December and asked them why something similar could work in Ohio, a long way from Washington.

The report centers on the coal mine town of Centralia between Tacoma, Washington, and Portland, Oregon.

The mine's owner announced in 2006 that the mine would close by 2025, affecting around a thousand jobs in an area of about 15,000 people.

The mine owner agreed to set up a $55 million fund, with money going into three categories energy efficiency and weatherization.

Economic and community development, and clean energy.

Technology investments in Centralia had a big turnaround after that.

So, Mark, I want to ask you, why do you think that is and why do you think something like that could work in Ohio, which is not Washington?

Well, what they did was, rather it was a rather remarkable turnaround.

If you look at the data and where it was, where you really see it is it created a lot of small businesses and existing small businesses hired more workers, and in particular, in construction.

There was just a a wave of construction.

And that came from the energy efficiency investment.

So there was a double or triple dividend there.

That one they got, the, the jobs created for the energy efficiency.

Two, they got the double dividend of people saving money on their energy bills.

And then three, they were doing something that was environmentally friendly.

So let me ask you, Nick, you're sure it was these three, parts of this, $55 million investment and not something else that created this boom.

Yeah.

So when you look at the data, there's a correlation.

But our job, and the research we do as economists is to try to dig a little deeper than that correlation and get towards causation.

and one of the things that we did in our study is we actually constructed, an algorithm that built a counterfactual Centralia, Washington.

And so we actually looked at the other 38 counties in Washington, across about 40 or so variables about their economy, their demographics, their geography, and, and weighted each of those things to try to essentially build a, counterfactual Centralia.

Right.

Like a treatment and control and a drug trial, that they might use in pharmaceuticals.

And what we find is that when these grants start rolling out what we expect to happen in Centralia and what actually happened, Centralia diverge almost in that exact year, in 2016.

So these grants start hitting shovels, and you actually start seeing that before that 2013 1415.

They're moving perfectly together.

2016 boom.

The real Centralia where the money hits shovels, starts performing better economically.

It starts having a better job growth.

It starts having better personal income growth.

And as Mark mentioned, the real the real kicker is that it's, you see, this huge divergence in, small business, you know, self-employment income where businesses start actually, doing this work.

Now, Mark, you said in a webinar about this report that Centralia moved away from coal and the underlying supply chain to the power plant was also there.

But in Ohio, Appalachia has doubled down on the oil and gas boom.

We've seen that in the shale development in eastern Ohio and most recently in fracking.

Being allowed on state lands and in some state parks.

And there's also this continued investment into this cracker that's been talked about for Belmont County since at least 2018 that I can remember.

So and the state spent $70 million on that cracker already.

So why two different approaches here?

Why is Ohio invested in this approach when there's another approach?

Well, I think I think you're raised a really good question.

The oil and gas boom, you know, despite all the hype, if you look at the population growth in the main counties over a fact they actually lost people and they actually lost more people in the decade of the oil boom than they did in the previous decade.

So it's not been a great job.

Economic growth contributor.

So what's different about this is it relies on the local, people who rely relies on the local citizens.

It requires entrepreneurship and small businesses starting up.

And and the one of the nice things about small businesses as opposed to a large corporation is the money stays local.

In other words, the profits stay local.

Also, small businesses tend to hire more workers the more labor intensive kinds of jobs.

So there's there's more workers involved.

And and then also, small businesses tend to buy a source or inputs locally.

So they're buying locally for their inputs.

And so you get a much bigger bank for small businesses than you do from large companies where a lot of that economic development just trickles out.

And when companies leave and there's this big vacuum in communities, the thinking has been to go try to find something similar to replace that a manufacturer, and you go out and try to not find another manufacturer to replace that.

but that can that sometimes doesn't work as you kind of described in this report.

Right, Nick.

Right.

you end up in, in what economists really term a race to the bottom in those types of situations where, you kind of get into a panic.

The traditional thinking has been, well, we need to recruit a new a new company to come in and save these jobs.

How do you recruit a new company?

Well, we'll offer tax incentives, so we'll give property tax exemptions.

We'll give income tax exemptions, and we'll try to be a attractive spot for a new company to come in and build a factory or replace the old one.

but the problem is everybody's doing that.

And so if you're a county in Ohio, you're not only competing against other counties in Ohio, but you're also competing against counties in Pennsylvania, in West Virginia and Tennessee and Kentucky for these types of, of of investment.

and so what you end up with is a lot of situations where the community has lost more tax revenue than economic benefit that it's gained from bringing in a new firm with new jobs and the clean energy or energy tax transition.

Part of this grant program had a lot of matching investments coming in from corporations from the state of Washington itself.

Coal is king and was king in southeast Ohio.

Those residents and some politicians, many of whom were Republicans, aren't necessarily convinced that energy efficiency programs and these things are the way to go.

So how do you convince them with just this example from just one town?

Well, I think I think one of the things they have to look at is, is, is what they're doing.

Is it working because they've been trying the same strategy over and over again.

And and it hasn't really worked.

And if you mentioned coal, I think we're down to around 400 jobs is all that's left.

And coal in Ohio in terms of coal.

so what what's different about this is that, it doesn't take a large investment, you know, you know, you talk about the Intel plant, for example.

You know, there was billions of dollars, millions, billions of dollars in incentives.

You know, we're talking about tens of millions of dollars in terms of and that stays locally.

You know, it doesn't go to some corporation.

And, the other feature is, is that it relies on, you know, something that I would think Republicans would appreciate is small businesses in small business development and entrepreneurship.

And so I think that's something that Republicans could gather around.

the one advantage that clean energy has over brown energy, I should mention is it's it's something that's going to be growing.

By contrast, manufacturing, due to a lot of reasons, productivity growth is going to be shrinking.

So if you're trying to get a bigger piece of a shrinking pie, you're not going to get a lot where with clean tech, you're going to you know, it's a growing pie.

And I think a lot of times we focus on big companies, lots of jobs rather than smaller companies where you only have ten, 20, 50, whatever jobs.

But in some of these industries, as technology improves, the number of people who are needed actually does not grow like it used to.

Right.

And I'll give you an example.

You brought up the ethane cracker plant.

they opened one recently in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and even the direct jobs estimates from that facility are lower than they were projected back in 2012.

Because you've seen advancement and automation take over even in just the last 8 or 9 years.

and so I think what we are thinking about in this report and what the results show, is that the secret not only small business, but diversification, is that if you put all of your economic eggs in one basket, and then something happens where automation comes over, you need a lot fewer workers.

Suddenly you're kind of up the creek without a paddle, so to speak, right at versus if you have made, smaller investments in a diverse collection of industries and businesses locally, then you're much more resistant to global changes in marketplaces and resistant to automation and technological shifts.

And so, when we think about coal or natural gas, right?

Coal has been affected by this shift towards natural gas.

And now natural gas is being impacted by events in the Ukraine and other places around the world.

And that has ripple effects and small communities here in Ohio.

And so when you diversify, you don't necessarily get those same big shifts.

When something major happens in one market in the world.

One of the other things you talk about in this report is quality of life being an issue.

To try to bring in companies and people and that sort of thing.

Appalachian Ohio has been exploited through the boom bust cycle over decades of companies coming in and then leaving.

So, Mark, you talked in that webinar about changing attitudes in the community and trying to encourage investment that way.

How do you do that when you're dealing with people who've been there, done that, seen it all before.

They don't trust that this is going to be the solution, right?

You mean you're exactly right.

They've heard so many solutions that haven't worked.

And you know, there's reason to be skeptical.

However, with this, I think that the, the big the big difference is that, with the diversification that Nick was talking about with, the fact that, I and other research we've done, small business development creates about twice as many extra jobs, spillover jobs than you get in from large businesses.

this is something that that can work.

And in terms of the attitude, the psychology you're talking about is that when when you're declining place, one of the things that's really hurting them is everybody's saying, this place isn't going anywhere.

Why should I invest here?

Why should I stay here?

Likewise, outsiders are saying, why would I want to go there if the if the place is in decline?

So by changing the attitudes like they did in Centralia, when they saw this thing was working, all of a sudden this place is growing.

We can invest here.

We can I can stay here.

You know that once that psychology turns around, that's when a place can, you know, sustainably be and economic growth.

And what are the things that can come along with that?

I mean, quality of life issues.

what are some other things that can come with that besides just a single company starting up?

Right.

Well, I think Mark kind of touched on it earlier, but when you have places that, like Southeast Ohio, where you have beautiful geography, you have really, you have the potential for some really vibrant comeback communities, right?

If you've driven through some of the downtowns in these in these, places.

And so when you start attracting population growth, that's really an indicator of economic growth.

So it's not just about having jobs, but it's about, building up an area of the state that is beautiful, that has a lot of pride in its history and attracting people there.

And I think that there's also a lot of opportunity.

You mentioned technology, as remote work becomes more and more of a thing across the country, you have the potential to really attract workers to places that are high and quality of life.

They have clean environments, they have vibrant downtowns, don't you?

Don't have to be a large city to have a vibrant downtown.

You have some of those amenities local businesses, local restaurants.

You have outdoor entertainment, great hiking, great.

You know, nature and low cost of living and low cost of living.

So, you know, it's a much, much more affordable, in terms of living costs.

And so you can attract people.

And when you attract people, you can grow your population.

And that's usually a a key to, part of the recipe for, for economic recovery.

And if I can, if I may.

Yeah.

Just if I may, just to add to that, the western U.S., the Rocky Mountain areas was a very similar economy boom, bust, relying on timber mining, you know, the same kind of industries you see in Appalachia.

And they went through the transition earlier.

They were for they were forced to by various environmental regulations and so forth.

So they're forced to go through this.

And, you know, the very unhappy, you could see why they were losing their jobs.

However.

Very nice place.

It turned around because of a quality of life issue.

You know, the quality of life was very high.

People started moving there.

And why, you know, the question is, why can't Appalachia also do that?

I think there's a big obstacle in Appalachia in that broadband is still not as available.

There's still big pockets of the state that don't have broadband like it is in the major urban centers.

And that hurts.

Yeah, definitely.

And I think we've seen, both Republicans and Democrats in the last 4 or 5 years make big commitments and investments and hopefully, all of that comes to fruition and the money actually goes out and helps install broadband into these communities.

It is challenging in Appalachia because of the geography and the mountainous terrain.

But, you know, we've done some research on that as well.

And there are a lot of dollars being invested in broadband, and I think that kind of goes hand in hand with what I mentioned with remote work and what I mentioned with, the quality of life, having access to, to the global marketplace will be big there, too.

One of the other conclusions of this report is economic growth and economic development are two different things that, there's that boom and bust and just because you have economic development doesn't mean you're going to have economic growth.

And so how do you make sure that people think that this is something that translates?

This is just one town that you looked at.

How does it how are you certain that this does translate throughout different areas, not just Appalachian Ohio, but maybe other parts of the state, other parts of the country?

Oh for sure.

This is the kind of thing that could work, anywhere.

You know, it relies on an entrepreneurial climate and small towns.

And so this is not something that, is specific to Centralia, Washington.

Also, you know, we we did a lot of work on this with Centralia.

And one of the things that that stands out is this we're talking about a very similar geography.

We're talking about, you know, a similar rural culture, you know, things, you know, very conservative, culture.

You know, I mean, there are very, you know, there's a lot of things that are very much alike.

They're both on a major, interstate.

they both have very good transportation access.

So the think there's no reason to think that it can't work in Appalachian, because this is some sort of weird special case.

And then, as I already mentioned, you saw this across the Rockies already.

You know, it was a different kind of a transition, but one that also Appalachian you could participate in.

One of the other side effects of this is they could help deal with some of the problems that rural communities have been having with the opioid crisis, which you've also looked into as well.

Oh, exactly.

I mean, it's not the only cost, but one of the one of the key causes is the lack of economic opportunity, you know, and around it you have the deaths of despair, as what they were call was suicides.

And and overdoses and so forth.

And by turning around the economy, it gives people hope.

And you see fewer, opioid deaths.

So overdoses.

So this is something that all around is a game changer.

So Nick, final word here.

This all sounds very positive and very sunny.

Like just do this and it'll be easy.

It takes a lot of time.

Many years to see the results here.

How can you tell people and reassure them that if you hang in there this is going to work?

Yeah, I think, there's there's phases of this and you see the results start to happen as soon as money hits the shovels.

But you're right that it's taken six, seven, eight years.

If you go to Centralia, Washington now, it looks very different than it did ten years ago on the ground in their downtown.

but I think one of the advantages is when you use local labor, local businesses, you start to see that impact right away, as opposed to if I'm investing money in, you know, building a fracking drilling site and building a pad and building a road, and you're not going to see that impact or immediately.

Right?

You're not going to see that there's going to be overnight some kind of change in your neighbors or in your community.

And so I think one of the things that that people really need to to, think about as they consider this approach is that, as Mark said, it takes less money upfront.

And so it's also a lower risk, you know, to try to, to go down this road and then also it because it uses local folks, people are going to feel the impact much sooner than relying on an outside multinational company to change economic fortunes.

Any final thoughts?

I think, my my final thought is, is that, we've been trying the same thing over and over again, for the last 30 some years.

You look at site selection magazine tracks, large firm start ups.

Ohio has been first in the country eight times.

I don't think we've ever been below four in the last 30.

In other words, we're really good at attracting manufacturing facilities.

Yet when you look at the results, it just has it translated into growth.

And so it's time for a new approach that, that it's not very risky and has been shown that could really make a positive change.

You mentioned that Site Selection magazine.

We've covered that in the media before, but there's a big difference between attracting the company and what happens afterwards.

Exactly.

Yeah, exactly.

and I mean, you know, it comes back to one of those things is if you're focusing on a declining industry, manufacturing in terms of jobs, you're really then trying to get a bigger piece of a shrinking pie, and it's hard to win that game.

The full findings are available at the Ohio River Valley Institute's website.

That's it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at state News source or find us online by searching State of Ohio Show.

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Look for it every Monday morning wherever you get your podcasts.

And please join us next time for the State of Ohio.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at porterwright.com.

Porter Wright inspired Every day in Ohio Education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.