John Kasich on Jobs Republican Governor; previously Representative (OH-12); 2000 candidate for President

No local vote on $15 minimum wage; keep $8.10

Raise Up Cleveland, the group sponsoring the proposal with the backing of the Service Employees International Union, had aimed to get a $15-per-hour minimum wage proposal on the November ballot. But Cleveland City Council held months of contentious hearings on the proposal, and the issue narrowly missed that ballot deadline, buying city officials and other opponents more time to try to quash the measure.

Proponents of a minimum-wage hike have said it would help the local economy by putting more money in the hands of poorer Clevelanders who are likely to spend it. Kasich signed the bill without comment.

I created jobs in Congress & in Ohio; let's make it thrice

I've been an innovator my entire career. And I really don't care what special interests or lobbyists have to say. I have a job to do when I take over a public office. Now, we freeze non-defense discretionary for eight years. We also put an increase in defense spending. Our tax cuts balance out. And at the end of the day, we will get to a balanced budget.

And I want everybody here to know, when I was Budget Committee chairman in Washington, I stepped on every toe in that town, and we got to a balanced budget, and we had enormous job growth. And as governor of Ohio, we went from 350,000 lost jobs to a gain of 347,000 jobs. I'll do it in Washington. I've done it twice; I'll do it thrice for the United States of America.

When you balance the budget & cut taxes, people get work

Don't raise minimum wage willy-nilly, & do it at state level

KASICH: No, people were asking me about minimum wage and I said it's very important that we don't raise the minimum wage willy-nilly and we end up throwing out of work the most unskilled workers. I also said that if you're going to have a raising the minimum wage, it ought to be something that gets calculated between employers and labor. And I fundamentally believe it ought to be done at the state level.

Limit collective-bargaining rights for public employees

But then things took a turn for the weird. The pugnacious Kasich conceded defeat. Graciously. On election night, he issued an official statement noting that "the people of Ohio have spoken, and I respect their decision." And then, he let the issue go. For some Kasich-watchers, this was when the governor began to moderate.

2011: Public employee union reforms overturned by voters

No strikes allowed for public employees

One big difference between our bill and the bill in Ohio was that we exempted firefighters and police officers from our collective bargaining reforms. Kasich had not. This allowed the unions to cast Kasich as an enemy of public safety.

Kasich never got a chance to implement his reforms. Kasich's opponents simply needed to gather 230,000 signatures to trigger a referendum. By July 2011, they had gathered 1.3 million. That meant his reform law was immediately suspended and put on the ballot, where it was repealed before the changes could take effect. Ohio voters never got an opportunity to see whether or not the reforms had worked as Kasich promised.

Incentives to businesses create jobs & raise wages.

[As part of the Contract with America, within 100 days we pledge to bring to the House Floor the following bill]:

The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act:
Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages.