Lawmakers to ask voters for renewal

February 3, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio lawmakers decided Tuesday to ask voters for $700 million over four years to renew the Third Frontier, one of the state’s most reliable job- creation programs.

Legislators had worried that if their request was too small, the high-tech grant program may fall short in its effort to reverse soaring unemployment in a state where the jobless rate stands at 10.9 percent. But if they asked for too much, cash-strapped Ohioans might reject the request.

A committee of the Ohio House and Senate scheduled the vote Tuesday to meet a deadline today to get the proposal on the May 4 ballot.

“I am very pleased that the Ohio House and Senate have come together in a bipartisan manner to support renewing and expanding the successful, job-creating Ohio Third Frontier program,” House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, said in a statement.

The committee needed to strike a compromise between three numbers: the $1 billion Gov. Ted Strickland proposed, the $950 million approved by the Democratic-led House, and the $500 million approved by the Republican-led Senate.

The $700 million decision reached by the committee Tuesday fell almost evenly between the amounts approved in the House and Senate. The total will be collected over four years.

The $1.6 billion program provides startup money for companies in targeted industries such as advanced energy and materials, biomedical development, and power and propulsion. Begun in 2002 under Republican Gov. Bob Taft, it is estimated to have created 41,000 jobs so far. Voters last approved issuing bonds to fund the program in 2005.

Third Frontier Commission Chairman Eric Fingerhut said the commission decision to limit the pool of bidders, for this year only, that could compete for high-risk funds to help start new businesses was entirely reasonable “given the seriously weakened economic picture in May 2009 [when the vote was taken], and the high level of risk involved in pre-seed funds.”