Columbus Chamber Blog: Information about economic development, economic and business trends, Columbus workforce, programs, events and the Chamber of Commerce in and around Columbus, OH

Chamber Government Day Puts Economic Development Public Policy in the Spotlight

By Steve Tugend, Vice President, Government Relations

With yesterday’s primary election, government office holders and policies have been in the spotlight. I’m even more excited about the Columbus Chamber Government Day event, which will be held May 14 at the Athletic Club of Columbus.

Each year at Government Day, some of the region's and state's most important policy makers come together with business. The state of Ohio faces some significant obstacles to emerging from the recession, and the business community needs to be informed about how government can help.

The 2010 agenda will include a morning of roundtable discussions where attendees sit at the same table as public policy experts in areas such as workforce, infrastructure, and economic development.

Following the informative morning sessions, the Government Day luncheon program will feature a post-primary discussion between Ohio Democratic Party Chair Chris Redfern and Ohio Republican Party Chair Kevin DeWine. It will be moderated by political-scene veteran, Mike Curtin, associate publisher emeritus of the Dispatch Printing Company and chairman of the Columbus Chamber Government Affairs Steering Committee.

I hope you’ll join us. Tickets for Government Day are $50. To register for this half-day event, visit the Columbus Chamber event page.

Columbus Chamber Supports State Issues 1 and 2

By Steve Tugend, Vice President of Government Relations

Early voting begins today for the May 4 primary election ballot. As you consider the issues, remember that the Columbus Chamber supports State Issues 1 and 2.

If adopted, State Issue 1 would renew the Ohio Third Frontier program by authorizing the state of Ohio to issue $700 million in bonds to support economic development initiatives. The Third Frontier was founded on the commitment to shape the future Ohio’s economy through a balanced portfolio of programs to support research and commercialization, entrepreneurial assistance, cluster development, and expansion of the talent pool. Created in 2002, the program’s 10-year initial life and a bipartisan commitment of $1.6 billion will expire in June 2012. The May ballot issue would extend that to June 2016.

This program is good for business and good for Ohio because it builds on the state's strengths in technology and innovation to create high-wage jobs, new growth companies, and globally competitive products.

The Chamber also supports State Issue 2, the proposal to change the address where a Columbus-area casino can be located. Because of the passage of State Issue 3 in November 2009, current law requires that a casino built in Columbus must be built in the city’s Arena District. 

The Columbus Chamber opposed State Issue 3. Following its passage, we urged state and local lawmakers to work with Penn National Gaming for a solution that would ensure that a casino would not be located in the Arena District and also honor the will of Ohio’s electorate by finding an alternative location in the Columbus region that was suitable to host a casino.

Earlier this month, it was announced that the city of Columbus, Penn National Gaming, and Franklin Township had agreed to locate the Columbus-based casino on property that borders on the west side of Columbus. The property was formerly occupied by a Delphi factory. 

The Chamber believes our community should be able to decide where a casino would be located. By changing the location to the Delphi site, a property that was shuttered due to the painful transition in the auto industry can now receive hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and be transformed into a business that will attract tourists from outside our region.

Experience Columbus, the Columbus Partnership and leaders including Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman and Franklin County Commissioner John O'Grady also support Issue 2.

Seeking Business Feedback on Ohio Third Frontier

By Steve Tugend, Vice President, Government Relations

Has your company received funding from the Ohio Third Frontier? Then the Columbus Chamber wants to hear from you.

A $700 million bond renewal for the Ohio Third Frontier will be listed as State Issue 1 on the ballot for the May 4 primary election, and the Columbus Chamber is seeking information on the program’s impact on local businesses that have received its funding.

The Ohio Third Frontier is a four-year, bipartisan initiative that invests in cutting-edge research with commercial relevance in growing industries, the growth of technology-based enterprises, entrepreneurship, and attracting world-class talent for Ohio’s workforce. Ohio Third Frontier focuses on developing five key technology clusters, including advanced energy, advanced materials, biomedical, power and propulsion, and instruments, controls and electronics.

Since its creation in 2002 within the Ohio Department of Development, Ohio’s Third Frontier has fostered new technologies and industries that have driven economic growth and job creation within the state. Its passage this May would ensure that the Third Frontier is renewed with no gap in funding, permitting longer-term investment commitments to be made in fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012 and maintaining and accelerating the program’s momentum which would otherwise slow in the face of uncertainty regarding continued funding.

Companies that have received Third Frontier funding are invited to share their business experiences and outcomes. Contact me at 614.225.6943 or steve_tugend@columbus.org.

Act Now: Passenger Rail Service Funding

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is applying to secure federal funding for a state initiative that will connect Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati with passenger rail service.  The Columbus Chamber supports this application, and we ask that you consider joining us in sending a letter of support that can be included in ODOT’s application.

Currently, the Columbus region is the largest city in the eastern half of the US that does not have passenger rail service.  This is particularly troubling because it impacts our region’s ability to attract and retain the workforce that we need to fuel the expansion of our economy.  The Chamber’s research indicates that young professionals, when determining the region where they want to live, highly value the presence of rail transportation. 
 
We ask that you e-mail your letter of support to Scott Varner at Scott.Varner@dot.state.oh.us.  ODOT needs your letters by September 30.

More information on the rail project can be found here.

Economic Impact of House Bill 1

The Ohio General Assembly passed its biennial operating budget (House Bill 1).  Governor Strickland is expected to sign the bill.  While the budget contains a number of controversial and well-publicized items, such as authorizing slot machines to operate in our state, I wanted you to know about key portions of the budget that directly impact our ability to fulfill our economic development mission. 

The highlights of the bill include:

• Preservation of tax reform.  The top goal of the Columbus Chamber in this budget was to preserve the 2005 tax reform package.  That is why the Columbus Chamber worked with Ohio ’s other metro chambers, the Ohio Chamber and economic development trade associations such as the Mid-Ohio Development Exchange to encourage legislators to maintain the tax reform package that was designed to facilitate economic development.  Despite monumental budgetary challenges, the General Assembly and Governor Strickland refrained from increasing tax rates.  The final phasing-in of a 21 percent reduction in income tax rates was allowed to occur.  Additionally, the Commercial Activity Tax rate continued to be set at 0.26 percent.
• Elimination of funding for internships.  In the 2008 state stimulus package enacted by the General Assembly and Governor Strickland, a program was created that was slated to provide $50 million a year, beginning in this biennium, to foster new co-ops and internships.  The Columbus Chamber looked to this funding as a possible way to expand the scope and effectiveness of its existing internship program.  As a result, the Chamber partnered with The Ohio State University, Columbus State Community College and many others to submit a proposal to the Ohio Board of Regents that would create hundreds of new internships.  Unfortunately, the state’s severe budgetary situation caused lawmakers to cut all funding for the program.   The Columbus Chamber had led a grassroots effort to try to preserve some funding for this important item in the Chamber’s Public Policy Agenda.
• Preservation of funding for important state economic development initiatives.  During the state’s budgetary process, there was an attempt to divert a substantial portion of the Facilities Establishment Fund to fund other initiatives.  Among other things, the State of Ohio uses the Facilities Establishment Fund to issue low-interest loans that facilitate job creating economic development deals.  The Chamber worked with other organizations such as the Ohio Economic Development Association and many of our local economic development officials to keep the Facilities Establishment Fund as intact as possible.  The final version of the budget eliminated the proposed fund diversions that the Chamber had opposed.  There was, however, a significant decrease in the level of General Revenue Fund support of the Department of Development.  In Fiscal Year 2009, the department received $1.2 billion in funding.  In 2010 and 2011, the department will receive approximately $900 million a year.

 

Chamber Pursuing Federal Support for Internship Funding

The Chamber has been busy trying to persuade our Congressional delegation to get federal support for the Columbus Chamber’s internship initiative.  We have found that there is no shortage of students who want internships, but there is a shortage of businesses that have the resources, particularly in these tough times, to create new internship positions at their companies.  So, we are pursuing federal dollars that will provide counseling to small and medium-sized businesses on how they can best design and internship and to subsidize the salaries of new internships that businesses create.

We initially targeted five offices in Washington, DC: Senator Voinovich, Senator Brown, Congressman Tiberi, Congresswoman Kilroy and Congressman Austria and just found out that Congresswoman Kilroy has included our project in her list of projects that she recommends to receive federal appropriations.  Congressman Tiberi has elected to not submit individual appropriations requests and we still have not heard from Congressman Austria, Senator Voinovich and Senator Brown.

To secure funds to subsidize the cost of hosting internships for local businesses, the Chamber needs your help. By visiting our grassroots action center you can show your support for this appropriation by contacting your congressional representative.It takes less than 5 minutes and will be another step in the right direction for the future of our business community.