Valley has an opportunity to boost high-tech image

Because of its reputation as a manufacturing region, the Mahoning Valley has not been on the state of Ohio's priority list when it comes to the development of high-technology businesses. That is why in the current fiscal year, the Youngstown Business Incubator, which is assisting eight technology companies to get started, received a measly $194,000 from Columbus out of the $20.6 million allocated for high technology.
It's the same old refrain: the big cities gobbled up the biggest share of the funding pie. Indeed, some got two huge slices, while the YBI, which is trying to find a way to keep the start-up companies from leaving the city of Youngstown once they have "graduated," has had to settle for crumbs.
So when a 17-member state committee comes to the Mahoning Valley next week to find out how Ohio can retain and attract high-technology start-up businesses, the message that should be delivered loudly and clearly is simply this: stop playing favorites with public dollars.
There is absolutely no reason why those cities that have Edison incubators and Edison centers -- yes, politics played a major role in the establishment of the Edison technology program -- should receive the lion's share of the state dollars. The city of Dayton should not receive $2.4 million for its Edison Materials Technology Center and $2 million for the IT Alliance program, both under the Edison centers category, and also get $194,000 for the Dayton/Miami Valley Entrepreneur Center under the Edison incubators program.
While the High Technology Start-up Business Committee is to be praised for deciding to come to the Mahoning Valley and should be welcomed warmly by government and community leaders and individuals involved in high-tech businesses, the fact remains that this region is an after-thought as far as the state is concerned. That must change.
Public dollars: A report the committee is preparing for presentation to the Ohio General Assembly must contain a section dealing with the fair allocation of public dollars.
Committee members will hear testimony from representatives of some of the leading technology companies in the Valley, but what they should bear in mind is that the companies are succeeding despite the lack of support from state government.
Granted, the entire state is at a disadvantage when it comes to competing for the high-tech jobs -- of the 5.3 million positions nationally, only 150,000 are in Ohio -- but the situation won't change unless the decision-makers in the executive and legislative branches wake up to the reality of what is going on in regions that aren't on the priority funding list.
"We're going to pound our drum on what we're doing right and that we need an investment in this area from the state," says state Rep. John Boccieri, D-New Middletown, of the committee's visit to the Valley.
We hope the committee members aren't hard of hearing.