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

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.