Some question JobsOhio paying for certain new jobs

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – Companies in certain industries that move to Ohio are now eligible for up to $15,000 per employee under an incentive program funded by the state's liquor profits.

The employee must establish primary residency in Ohio and start work before the company is paid.

Eligible industries are advanced manufacturing, aerospace and aviation, automotive, energy and chemical, financial service, insurance technology, food and agribusiness, healthcare, military and federal.

The program is funded by Jobs Ohio – a private economic development corporation funded by the profits from liquor sold in Ohio.

While industry recruiters like the incentives, Greg Lawson, senior research Fellow at The Buckeye Institute, believes there is a better way to attract jobs.

“Ohio should welcome talented people moving here,” Lawson told The Center Square. “The better way to attract them is to make Ohio more competitive for everyone, through improved education, data-driven workforce training, lower taxes across the board, fewer licensing barriers, and less red tape, rather than through targeted subsidies that benefit a select few.”

The incentive program “has the state picking winners and losers,” Lawson said. “Cash payments go to companies in favored industries for favored occupations, while employers in every other sector get nothing. There is also a real risk that JobsOhio ends up paying companies for hires they would have made anyway.”

A lack of transparency also raises questions about the program, Lawson said.

“JobsOhio is generally exempt from Ohio's public records laws, and its job-creation claims need greater independent verification, so that taxpayers can better judge whether this, or any other, incentive delivers results,” he said.

Under the rules of the program, students attending Ohio institutions who are non-Ohio residents at the time of attendance qualify. But residents attending college outside Ohio do not qualify – they are considered in-state hires.

Members of the military stationed outside Ohio at the time of separation also qualify.

Companies may use the incentive money as they wish.

"Since launching the JobsOhio Relocation Incentive just over a year ago, more than 270 Ohio employers have been fully approved for the incentive to hireeligible STEM and technical workers in our targeted sectors," Matt Engle, JobsOhio press secretary, told The Center Square. "Those companies brought on 267 new associates who have relocated and established residency through the program, demonstrating how the assistance is a powerful tool for Ohio companies that are driving economic growth while encouraging more net in-migration throughout the state.”