Like Many States, Ohio Reaches for A Lifeline

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Columbus Battered By Economic Downturn

Communities across the United States continue to be battered by the struggling economy, including Columbus, Ohio, which is experiencing severe cuts within community service organizations as record numbers of people require help.

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At the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, director Lisa Hamler-Fugitt asked for $14 million a year from the state and received $8.5 million despite growing demand and rising food costs.

Hundreds of people showed up in Logan, south of Columbus, to receive food this month. The first family, a mother, father and four young children, pulled their aging minivan into line at 5:30 p.m. one evening to get groceries the next morning at 8.

Hamler-Fugitt worries that the federal stimulus will have only limited benefits: "It's one-time money. We have a structural deficit." Habat said something similar, pointing out that tax cuts passed by the state legislature in 2005 will save taxpayers and cost the government roughly $4.4 billion during the next two years, more than half the projected deficit.

"With the magnitude of the problem, there's no way Ohio can expect the federal government to give it that kind of money," said Habat, whose organization calculates that the recession will cost the state another $4 billion in revenue during the next two years.

"Ohio always lags in recovering from recessions," Habat said.

State policymakers are united in saying that any recovery will require federal tax dollars, and lots of them.

As for the telephone call Strickland made to Emanuel, asking for billions: The governor said Emanuel called back and said "something to the effect of, 'I hear you. You may not get everything you want, but you'll get help.' "