An ambitious blueprint for spurring Ohio development

An ambitious blueprint for spurring Ohio development

Even the executive summary of the Strickland administration’s new strategic plan for the Ohio Department of Development takes up two pages and contains more than 100 goals, strategies, initiatives and targets, which is to say the plan is impressive.

We’re not going to do it justice in 10 column-inches of newspaper type, but we’re going to start what should be an on-going community conversation about it.

Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who also serves as Gov. Ted Strickland’s director of development, is going around the state to give communities a first look at what the Department of Development has come up with. He met with Vindicator editors and a writer last week.

Looking to the future

It’s a long range-plan, but Fisher‘s department won’t be ignoring quick opportunities to improve the state’s business prospects. The administration demonstrated that with a response to General Motors that helped nail down production of the 2010 Chevrolet Cruze at the Lordstown plant.

The master plan is strong on statistics and specifics, comparisons and goals. Using the five states contiguous to Ohio, plus Illinois, the study determined, for instance, that Ohio’s growth rate in per capita income has been only 91 percent of the regional baseline. It has set a target of increasing that to 125 percent by the year 2010.

Of course, setting the goal and reaching it are two entirely different matters. The plan outlines strategies that include economic development incentives, job stimulus plans, global trade missions, improving education and training, and reacting quickly to the demands of the department of development’s “customers,” businesses interested in moving to or expanding in Ohio.

Broad outreach

The plan was written after outreach sessions throughout the state. Members of the strategic advisory team included more than 80 business leaders, development specialists, researchers and educators from throughout the state

As we said, a newspaper column can’t do the plan justice, but the entire report is available at www.development.ohio.gov. And there will be more coverage and commentary in the future.

One other point we’ll make today. There’s even a component of the plan that ties into “Grow Home” in the Mahoning Valley (see the editorial below) and to the homing instinct of all who have fled the Ohio nest (see the column by a young Washington Post writer at right). The state is building a data base of people with education and talent who have Ohio ties, and the Department of Development will be watching for opportunities to pitch Ohio as the place to return to.

They probably won’t get Halle Berry, Drew Carey or Paul Newman to move back to Cleveland, but maybe — just maybe — they can get your kid to think about coming back home.