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Ohio needs to keep momentum going for economic development. Funding to sustain Third Frontier is crucial
Published on Tuesday, Apr 21, 2009
As the state's unemployment rate creeps toward 10 percent and worries about General Motors and Chrysler weigh heavily, much attention is rightly focused on efforts to kick-start the economy. Moving on large-scale infrastructure projects has become a top priority, the paychecks for workers essential to stimulating recovery in the short run.
Yet the larger context, as noted recently by Cleveland labor economist George Zeller, is that the state's economy has underperformed for a record 157 months, its rate of job creation lower than the national average. The number underscores the need to craft a new Third Frontier program, the $1.6 billion economic-development initiative started under the administration of former Gov. Bob Taft.
What's important about the program, the largest of its kind ever tried in this state, is the long-term goal of transforming the state's economy by funding research and the commercialization of high technology. It is about changing the fundamentals of Ohio's economy by creating new, high-wage jobs.
In 2005, the Third Frontier received a big boost when voters approved a bond issue, $500 million flowing to the high-tech development effort. Of the $1.6 billion generated from the bond issue and other sources (some dwindling), $900 million has been awarded. The program is due to expire in 2012. Officials in the administration of Gov. Ted Strickland are looking hard at what a new Third Frontier program might look like and considering another bond issue, perhaps as early as this November.
Renewing and improving the Third Frontier program was a key point in the economic-development plan unveiled last fall by Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who recently stepped down as director of the state's economic development department and chairman of the Third Frontier commission following his decision to seek a U.S. Senate seat next year. Fisher hinted at a ballot issue in 2011 or 2012, and a shift toward assisting start-up companies. It's none too soon to work out the details.
Advocates for the biological sciences, who also receive funding through a separate economic-stimulus plan squeezed by a lawsuit over tobacco-cessation money, argue convincingly for a fast-track approach. They correctly see the need for steady funding from a Third Frontier bond issue to help make up the difference. Last week, the governor's energy adviser, Mark Shanahan, pointed to the need to avoid even a temporary lapse in Third Frontier funding, which could damage projects such as Akron's BioInnovation Institute. In all, the Akron-Canton area has received $70 million for 30 projects.
Sadly, it took two trips to the ballot to get the first Third Frontier bond issue passed. Whatever the timing of the next attempt, voters must be repeatedly reminded of how effectively Third Frontier funds have been used, $1 in state money leveraging $9 in private and federal funds and helping launch 466 new companies. Ohio must find the will to accelerate its economic transition, sparking new jobs and turning the state around.
Get the full article here.
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