Contrary to the Governor's Notion, Maybe Ohio isn't So Bad

At least in Richard Florida's analysis (via Economist's View):

Unions continue to be a hot-button issue in American politics despite the fact that the level of unionization has fallen precipitously over the past half century.  While many continue to think of unions as the province of blue-collar working class economies, less than one in five workers in Rustbelt states - Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio--belongs to a union. Union states have more knowledge-intensive economies, boast more highly educated workforces, and have higher incomes as well.
The basic fact that unions are positively associated with so many key measures of prosperity suggests that their existence has little to do with state budget problems. (emphasis mine) Unions are not the cause of the serious economic and fiscal problems that are challenging so many American states, which are result of the economic crisis, collapsed housing market and massively reduced revenues. In fact, the economic influence of unions has been dramatically curtailed as a result of the ongoing transformation of the U.S. economy. At the same time, the existence of unions does not appear to be enough to forestall growing income inequality within the U.S, states.
It's time to get beyond the angry, ideologically motivated rhetoric about unions. We need to put our fiscal house in order and buckle down to the serious business of generating good jobs; more than that, we need to reinvent the U.S. economy for this new age.

Governor Kasich, please don't try to turn Ohio into a southern state with northern weather.  If I wanted that, I'd move to Indiana.