MANSFIELD — The future of Ohio’s businesses and employees was on the mind of Secretary of State Jon Husted during a campaign stop in Richland County on Wednesday.
As the Republican nominee for Lt. Governor with Mike DeWine, Husted visited PR Machine Works on Wednesday to tout he and DeWine’s new “Ohio Prosperity Plan,” which was officially announced in Cincinnati on Monday.
“When we talk about economic development, it’s about people,” Husted said. “It’s about the American dream.”
Introducing Husted on Wednesday was Ohio Manufacturers’ Association President Eric Burkland and State Rep. Mark Romanchuk, who also serves as president of PR Machine Works. Romanchuk, a Republican from Ontario, praised DeWine and Husted’s business-friendly stance in an increasingly global market.
“Our competitor is not down the street or the next state over, our competitor is in Asia,” Romanchuk said. “We need all the help we can get with regard to regulation, and workforce development is the absolute key. It is the defining issue.”
A number of local elected officials were in attendance, including Commissioner Marilyn John, Sheriff Steve Sheldon, Prosecutor Gary Bishop, and Ontario Mayor Randy Hutchinson.
Also in attendance was Troy Balderson, the Republican congressman-elect who ran against Democrat Danny O’Connor in an extremely close special election for Ohio’s 12th Congressional District on Aug. 7. The race has still not officially been called as of Wednesday, as absentee and provisional ballots continue to be counted.
Husted’s “Ohio Prosperity Plan” involves a simple formula: innovation, plus investment, plus talent, multiplied by entrepreneurism, equals prosperity. He noted the OhioMeansJobs.com site had 142,279 jobs available as of last week, with 75,500 of those jobs paying at least $50k annually.
“The biggest problem employers in this state face today is they’ve created so many jobs they can’t find enough people to fill them. These are the right kind of problems to have,” Husted said. “How do we help people qualify for these high-paying jobs, and what are we going to do for the long-term?”
Part of Husted’s plan to take Ohio’s economy to the next level is encouraging private investment through “opportunity zones” for economically distressed communities. Gov. John Kasich included Mansfield in a March 2018 recommendation to the U.S. Treasury for designation as “opportunity zones.”
Congress established the “opportunity zones” program through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which encourages investors to reinvest their unrealized capital gains into distressed communities in exchange for a series of tax incentives. However, in order to receive the tax incentive, the investment must last for the long term.
“It’s hard to get somebody to leave money in something for a long period of time, so if you want to benefit from the tax advantage you have to leave the money there for 10 years to receive the entire benefit of the investment,” Husted explained.
“These places are struggling not because we don’t have enough public investment, it’s because we don’t have enough private investment,” he continued. “We want to leverage what the federal government is doing and mimic that in Ohio, not only to get people in Ohio to reinvest but to bring investments from around the country.”
Another leg of the plan involves establishing regional job training partnerships throughout Ohio with local business, educational and community leaders. Husted and DeWine plan to create more flexibility in federal and state investment so communities can grow programs that work in training and recruiting talent and connecting them with careers.
According to Husted, the plan is for the state of Ohio to pay for training programs ranging from $300 to $2,300, and fund up to 10,000 programs per year. The catch is, participants must stay and work in Ohio after completing training.
“We have companies willing to provide these technical skills who will make a deal, if you get a job in six months you don’t have to pay the tuition,” Husted said. “We’re going to fund it in the areas where we know there are jobs; we’re going to take the 30 most in-demand jobs we know we can train people for, and fund certificates and degrees in those areas.”
Husted and DeWine also hope to make Ohio a place for innovation by allowing individual researchers at Ohio’s universities to own the intellectual property they create, as opposed to the universities owning the intellectual property.
Husted stated the goal would be to implement this type of program within the first six months of a DeWine/Husted administration.
“We know that federal funding and public funding continue to be diminished for these kinds of investments, and (university presidents) want to attract the best and the brightest to their universities,” Husted said.
The bottom line for Mansfield, which Husted referred to as “the heart of the Ohio economy,” is to help businesses prosper and in turn, help people prosper by earning higher wages.
“For a business to remain in business, they have to constantly innovate and get better,” Husted said. “We want to create a situation where more people want to make investments, have cutting-edge research, and the most talented workforce.”
