Job Ready Sites program could soon see revisions
BYLINE: Jeff Bell
Some Ohio legislators want to send the state's fledgling Job Ready Sites economic development program back to the shop for a tune-up.
The problem, said state Sen. John Carey, R-Wellston, is the program's guidelines can prevent some communities from applying for millions of dollars in state aid to prepare large business and manufacturing sites for development.
Carey's Senate Bill 24 would address that by keeping the Ohio Department of Development from writing rules that would exclude any county from applying for Job Ready Sites funding.
The bill, passed by the Senate March 28 and awaiting assignment to a House committee, would also require the Department of Development to bring all rules for the program to the legislature's Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.
Carey said lawmakers were under the impression such review would occur when they passed a bill last year to implement the Job Ready Sites program. But that did not happen, he said, because the Department of Development imposed program guidelines developed by consultants.
The rules are too narrow, he said, pointing to a promising project in Putnam County that didn't qualify because it sat 19 miles from an interstate highway instead of the 10 miles set forth in the guidelines.
"It is too bureaucratic," Carey said of the application process.
Funding for the program comes from the $2 billion public works and economic development bond package approved by Ohio voters in November 2005. The program is to receive $150 million over seven years to prepare large parcels for development.
The program awarded $51.5 million to 18 projects in fiscal 2006 and 2007, including sites in Cincinnati, Reading and Middletown. Those sites are:
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The TechSolve Business Park, in Bond Hill, which will be awarded $2.1 million to prepare a 25.3 acre site for development. -
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Middletown's Renaissance Development Opportunity Area, which won $2.2 million to construct the first of three planned buildings. -
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The Reading Life Science Complex expansion, which will receive $2.3 million to acquire a 10.3-acre site on East Third Street, demolish an existing building, remediate the property and add utilities.
Many counties received nothing, in part because program guidelines are too restrictive, Carey said. He said S.B. 24 was crafted after discussions with Gov. Ted Strickland's office, which inherited oversight of the Job Ready Sites program from former Gov. Bob Taft's development team.
Trade groups representing the state's economic development specialists and businesses also are on board.