Governor Kasich recently spoke at the Central State convocation in Wilberforce about his faith and efforts to help Ohioans that are most in need. While also honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., the Governor discussed his faith and civil rights. The Dispatch has more below:
WILBERFORCE, Ohio — Tears rolled down Gov. John Kasich’s cheeks yesterday while the choir belted out Amazing Grace. As How Great Thou Art wound to a close, he urged the mostly African-American crowd at historically black Central State University to its feet.
Wiping away tears and humbly telling the audience, “I don’t really know what I’m going to be talking about today,” Kasich launched a nearly 30-minute speech delving into issues of faith and perseverance and how they related to him, Martin Luther King Jr., the students in the audience, and his approach to governing.
“As we say, he’s ’bout it ’bout it when it comes to doing something,” said Zhelma Kendrick, 52, of Xenia, a sophomore at Central State. Kendrick said she typically leans Democratic “when it comes to politics,” but Kasich “just came across as being caring and concerned about change.”
“After listening to him, I have a different perspective on some of these politics issues,” she said.
The setting for Kasich’s speech was a Central State convocation. University President John W. Garland said Kasich was the first sitting governor to speak at such an engagement during Garland’s leadership tenure, nearly 15 years.
Kasich has discussed his own faith before, and at times during yesterday’s speech he returned to familiar themes of job creation and policy initiatives, but perhaps never before as governor has he stitched those themes together like he did yesterday.
Of King, the slain civil-rights leader whose birthday the nation celebrated on Monday, Kasich said: “It was the grace of the Lord empowering him to do what he did to change the face of our country.”
Gov. Kasich recently reached out to community colleges in Lorain, Cincinnati, and Columbus to encourage them to develop worker training programs that can assist minorities in pursuing a rewarding career. Ohio’s growing economy is providing opportunity throughout the state, and it’s important that all Ohioans have the training they need to be a part of it. Fox-19 has more below:
Governor Kasich recently spoke with Fox’s Neil Cavuto about how balancing our budgets and focusing on job creation has helped Ohio begin to recover. You can watch the video below:
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Governor Kasich was recently in Detroit for the North American International Auto Show and was there to sell Ohio to the auto companies as a place to invest and create jobs. WTOL-11 has more about the Governor’s visit below:
Governor Kasich is in Detroit this week for the North American International Auto Show and he’ll be working to sell Ohio as a place for auto companies to invest and setup their operations. Please watch this short video message below from the Governor that he filmed before leaving:
Honda will soon be expanding its presence in Ohio with a new operation t build the Acura NSX sports car. The Dispatch has more below:
DETROIT – Honda will build its new Acura NSX sports car at a new plant in central Ohio, the company said today.
The specific location and the number of employees will be part of a future announcement. The NSX, a revival of a model Acura produced from 1990 to 2005, will likely go on sale in 2015.
“We’re really proud to be able to say it will be manufactured in Ohio,” said Jeff Conrad, vice president and general manager for Acura, speaking at the North American International Auto Show.
Honda unveiled a preliminary version of the vehicle during a news conference that featured three new or redesigned models for the Acura brand.
A high-performance vehicle like the Acura NSX will be a niche product, which means only a small number of employees will be needed to build it. The previous generation of the NSX topped out with annual sales of 1,940 in 1991.
More important than the number of vehicles sold is the technology being developed for it, work that will occur in Ohio, a spokesman said. For example, the NSX will have an all-wheel-drive hybrid system, a new kind of gas-electric hybrid that aims to provide high performance and functionality.
Honda also unveiled new designs for the Acura RDX crossover, which is assembled in Marysville, and a preliminary version of a compact sports sedan, the ILX Concept.
Governor Kasich has asked Ohio’s universities to work together so they can have more input into budgeting and share ideas for reducing costs. The Dispatch editorial below has more about this important step toward ensuring that our kids and grandkids can stay in Ohio to attend college and technical schools:
Gov. John Kasich has asked Ohio’s 37 public colleges and universities to figure out how to divvy up the state’s slim budget and submit a single wish list for campus construction and repairs.
Positioning the schools to cooperate rather than compete is astute.
University leaders are best-positioned to evaluate the hard choices that must be made, since they live with the problems daily and will have to live with the decisions long-term. And by making colleges sit down together to determine priorities, they cannot help but gain a better understanding of the needs of their sister institutions.
The governor focused the universities by giving them a tight deadline to draw up a common capital-improvements request: They have two months. The tight deadline will reduce the amount of time for politicking and make this a more straightforward task.
And
The upcoming budget won’t provide nearly enough, but making the colleges confer could elicit a more-disciplined request. When colleges created lists individually, they were apt to ask for more than they expected to get, leaving state officials to try to figure out priorities.
Times have changed. Schools will need to be respectful of each others’ challenges. Ohio’s public universities and colleges already are allied, having formed the University System of Ohio in 2007 to decrease duplication and share resources. Asking them to unify over a capital budget is a logical next step.
And universities have been asking for less imposition from the state and greater freedom. This should give them the opportunity to show they can handle it.
Governor Kasich recently held an end-of-the-year press conference to highlight the many accomplishments that his administration has made in creating jobs and fixing Ohio. The Plain Dealer has more below:
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohioans next year can expect an aggressive pursuit of the economic benefits of shale gas, reform of the state’s workforce development programs and the rollout of another policy-driven budget plan, Republican Gov. John Kasich said Monday.
Kasich reflected on his first year in office, including the humbling repeal of Senate Bill 5 and the creation of thousands of jobs in Ohio, while outlining his priorities for 2012 during a year-end briefing with reporters at the state-owned governor’s mansion in suburban Columbus.
The first-term Republican governor did not give many specifics about how he would achieve his goals next year. But he identified “chronic problems” that his administration will attempt to fix to help turn around the state’s economy.
He said oil and gas companies coming to Ohio will be regulated — but not over-regulated.
The state’s severance tax, applied to companies that extract underground natural resources, is being re-evaluated. And Ohio is studying the possibility of assessing “impact fees” upon companies that drill. Some states charge such fees to help local governments compensate for needs that crop up as a result of a drilling boom.
Another priority next year will be tailoring workforce development programs to match available jobs. That means a renewed emphasis on vocational programs and better communication between employers and community colleges, Kasich said.
Kasich recited jobs statistics — nearly 83,000 jobs created or retained in Ohio this year — several times during the two-hour briefing.
“We were on death’s doorstep,” Kasich said of Ohio’s economy. “Now we’ve stabilized the patient in this state.”
And
Thematically, it was clear Kasich wants to continue focusing on jobs and the economy. He said he is committed to creating a stable environment for businesses and is encouraged by the progress made in his first year.
“We’re not going to pound our chest too hard,” he said. “But for now, we feel pretty good.”
Governor Kasich was in Southwest Ohio recently to join TQL Inc. for a major jobs announcement. The Enquirer has more below:
UNION TOWNSHIP — Fast-growing Total Quality Logistics Inc. is just the kind of business that Gov. John Kasich says will increase Ohio’s “cool factor.”
Thursday, he and other elected officials announced tax credits to help TQL double its size and hire 1,000 new workers over the next five years, one of the biggest single hiring projections this year.
TQL, the nation’s third largest truck brokerage, said it will invest up to $12 million in an additional 100,000 square-foot building in the 100-acre Ivy Point business park along Interstate 275. The company employs 1,000 now in Clermont County, most at the four-story building it opened in Ivy Pointe in 2007.
“This is the cutting-edge attitude and coolness we’re looking for,” Kasich said.
“It’s phenomenal what these folks have done here,” added Mark Kvamme, president of JobsOhio, the governor’s jobs creation agency.
Kvamme and Kasich both compared TQL to Silicon Valley start-ups like Google and leading online shoe retailer Zappos for the ability to innovate and attract bright, young workers.
The privately held company, which announced its revenues topped $1 billion for the first time this year, said it hopes to have the new building ready by spring 2013.
The project is expected to result in the hiring of 575 new employees in three years, growing to 1,000 in five years.
