Tue Feb 14 2012
By Marc Kovac
Record-Courier Capital Bureau
COLUMBUS -- Did you hear the loud sigh of relief from all of those out-of-work Ohioans after state lawmakers last week agreed to push $700 million in new state debt for their much-touted high-tech jobs initiative?
Me neither, for a couple of reasons.
First: Was there really any doubt that House Democrats and Senate Republicans wouldn't meet the Feb. 3 deadline for putting the issue on the May primary ballot?
Yes, there was the usual legislative drama and tough talk from Gov. Ted Strickland and other Statehouse Democrats who wanted to see a package valued at about $1 billion.
"It's in the court of the Republicans in the Senate," Strickland said when asked about the issue on the day before it ultimately passed. "Every other individual and stakeholder group that I have talked with in the entire state of Ohio supports the Third Frontier and a robust level of funding ... I hope they'll listen to the business community and to the academic community that strongly supports this and supports it at a robust level of funding."
As anticipated, the two chambers did act on the ballot measure and met the deadline.
It's surprising how quickly Statehouse dwellers can move when they are motivated. The House's quick passage of the Columbus casino address change issue last week should make that clear. So making the May ballot with both issues wasn't really ever in question.
But there's a bigger reason why average Ohioans could care less about the Third Frontier renewal: Many believe its expected passage will mean squat for many unemployed workers.
Yes, the backers of the May ballot issue will point to studies that pinpoint thousands and thousands of jobs and millions and millions of dollars of private investment that were leveraged already as a result of Third Frontier.
But walk down to the local barber shop or coffee counter and talk to everyday working Ohioans. In some places, you'd be hard pressed to find many who have ever heard of the initiative or know anyone working as a result of the big bucks state officials are doling out.
Agree with him or not, Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, a Republican from Napoleon in northwestern Ohio, made a good point during the floor debate on the topic.
"Why don't we give this group of smart guys and gals that must sit in some magical room and create all this wealth with a few bucks, why don't we give them $30 billion to $40 billion of the budget and tell state government to just hang on a year or two," he said. "And in a couple of years we'll have, what, $800 billion to spend because (of)all these smart guys and gals in some magic room that some of us want to give this money to."
He added, "Studies and all of these people who have all of these wonderful figures to help justify taking money away from one group and giving it away to another group, most of it is hogwash, in my humble opinion."
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Marc Kovac is the Dix Capital Bureau Chief. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at Ohio Capital Blog.
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