A recent U.S. Census Bureau report indicated that Ohio in the late 1990s had the second largest net out-migration of recent college graduates of any state in the Union. Student groups at my university organize bus trips to Charlotte and Chicago for seniors looking for jobs, but not to Cleveland, Columbus or Cincinnati. The reason is simple: Ohio is stagnating economically.

At the beginning of World War II, income levels per person averaged 14 percent higher in the Buckeye state than the nation as a whole; now they are 5 percent below that average. Average wages in the past two decades in Ohio have gone from well above to well below the national norm.

Most Ohio politicians are not even talking about our lackluster economic performance. One exception is Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. He thinks that scaling back state government growth will help, and is asking Ohioans to request the legislature to roll back the 2003 sales tax hike.

That approach is correct. There are dozens of studies that say that high taxes reduce economic growth. From 1957 to 1997, the 25 lowest-tax states had 20 percent larger income growth per person than the 25 highest-tax states.

It is thus not coincidental that Ohio's "growth deficit" coincides with a massive increase in the state's tax burden. The non-partisan Tax Foundation calculates that the state and local tax burden in 1970 was 47th highest of the states. In 2003, the Ohio tax burden was the 10th highest.

Gov. Bob Taft and the Ohio General Assembly raised taxes in 2003 to fund a state budget that, once again, grew faster than the incomes of Ohioans, thus crowding out productive private sector activity. Blackwell wants Ohio to roll the tax increase back.

Those dependent on state funding will argue that the sky will fall if that happens. That is nonsense. With the national economy exceeding expectations, the state is already over $179 million better off than anticipated four months into the fiscal year. A tax rollback would force the state to do some economizing like ordinary citizens do.

Ohio's march to high tax stagnation reflects a dysfunctional political environment. We must change the political culture of the state.

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Richard Vedder is Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University, Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and co-chair of the National Taxpayers Union of Ohio.

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