By Jeff Putman
Just when I was beginning to think that Gov Kasich might be not a RINO after all (supporting SB-5), he goes and appoints Jim Leftwich to head up the Ohio Department Of Development.
Leftwich is a leftist in more than just name only. As head of the Dayton Development Coalition, he maintained a policy of making the Dayton area economy COMPLETELY dependent on federal spending. Substantial amounts of DDC money have been spent on DC lobbyists. Read that again. Your Ohio tax dollars are being used to pay DC lobbyists!
A year ago, on WHIO radio, DDC said that they were surprised to learn that no other economic development agency in the country was doing anything like that. They had just always assumed that hiring lobbyists is the normal way
that everyone does business. It had never occurred to them that anyone might see anything questionable about it.
Leftwich populated DDC with mindless yes men who, with cult-like obedience, carried out a policy whose legality is questionable at best. Good managers hire people who think for themselves, who offer their insights and contribute
to everyone’s understanding. Leftwich, who before joining DDC, spent his career with the federal government being trained to systematically eliminate anyone who dares to think for himself. Such people are condemned as “not team
players.”
The “entrepreneurial development” side of DDC is also devoted to federal dependency. All of the entrepreneurs they assist are federal government contractors. Entrepreneurs that go to DDC with proposals to make products for
sale to the general public are ignored.
Where is this policy leading us? Where will the federal government get the money to pay all these contractors if there’s no civilian economy left? Where will the parasite get its food after it’s sucked its host dry?
DDC has ignored dozens of new products that could have been in production by now. Thousands of new jobs could have been created. And now it looks like this policy is going to be implemented statewide. If you’re an entrepreneur who wants to help build Ohio’s civilian economy, don’t expect any help from ODOD. Myself, I’m looking to other states.
