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Governor touts economic plan
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By Don Shilling
The plan includes asking voters to approve a bond issue for job-creation efforts.
YOUNGSTOWN — Gov. Ted Strickland said a proposed economic stimulus plan would help create more companies such as Accuform, a Youngstown company that makes parts for airplanes, ship satellite systems and mammography machines.
Strickland visited the precision machine shop in Salt Springs Industrial Park on Tuesday to tout a bipartisan plan to spend $1.57 billion in job-creation efforts.
The governor noted that the city-owned industrial park is located on a former slag dump. The stimulus package would provide $200 million for cleaning up abandoned industrial sites so they can be redeveloped.
Strickland said the state has spent $200 million so far on similar efforts through its Clean Ohio Fund, which has led to $2 billion in private investments in land development.
In talking about the plan, he stood with Bob Hockenberry, president and founder of Accuform, and his brother, Scott, company controller and vice president.
Accuform was started 20 years ago but moved to the industrial park about a year and a half ago. It employs 33 people in making finished and semifinished products from aluminum and steel. Products for the aerospace, defense and medical equipment industry are sent all over the world.
Strickland said that he expects the House to pass a resolution within the next couple of weeks that would place a $400 million bond issue on the November ballot to help fund the stimulus package. Other funding sources don’t need voter approval but do need legislative action, and Strickland expects that to happen soon as well.
Strickland said he is confident the measures will be adopted by the Legislature because they are supported by leaders of both parties.
The governor and senior Republican leaders announced three weeks ago that they had reached a compromise on the package. Strickland originally proposed a $1.7 billion bond issue that he said would create 80,000 jobs.
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Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D-Lisbon)
Republicans balked at borrowing that much money, so other funding sources were selected. The job-creation target was trimmed to 57,000 over five years.
Other funding sources include taking money from the state’s share of a tobacco litigation settlement, which had been designed for anti-smoking efforts, and using excess funds generated by turnpike tolls.
Strickland highlighted several parts of the stimulus package, including funding student internships and cooperative education programs. The plan would provide $250 million to fund such efforts at Ohio companies in the hopes that Ohio college students will stay in the state after working for these companies.
He also noted that $100 million is dedicated to improving the state’s ports, highways, rail lines and airports so Ohio can expand as a provider of logistical and distribution services. He said he has spoken with CSX officials who said they are considering building a major rail switching yard in northwest Ohio because of congestion at a yard in Chicago.
shilling@vindy.com