Panel gives recommendations on strengthening Ohio cities

By Marc Kovac

The group studied incentives to promote growth and redevelopment in cities.

COLUMBUS — A task force studying ways to reemphasize Ohio’s urban areas and focus state and local resources to ensure their future prosperity unveiled its list of recommendations for state action Tuesday.

The Compact with Ohio Cities Task Force, formed at the direction of Democratic House Speaker Armond Budish, has been working since June to identify ways to strengthen Ohio’s cities.

The 29-member group included lawmakers, city and county officials, organized labor and other groups. Members included Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and St. Clairsville Mayor Robert Vincenzo.

The group studied incentives to promote growth and redevelopment in urban areas and to increase regional cooperation in economic development and infrastructure improvements. Specific recommendations outlined by the group were:

ULand Use: Support legislation aimed at curtailing foreclosure issues and decreasing residential vacancies in cities.

UDevelopment: Focus incentives such as tax abatements on distressed urban areas and work to stop incentives from being used to lure businesses from one community to another within close proximity in the state.

UTransportation: Allow the creation of Transportation Innovation Authorities, enabling communities in a region to join together on road, bridge, rail and other transportation projects.

UJobs: Provide training grants and other assistance to Ohioans to enter bioscience, biotechnology and other industries in need of skilled workers.

A number of the recommendations are covered in legislation already introduced in both the Ohio House and Senate, and backers hope the task force’s work will draw attention to the bills and help prompt their passage.

“There’s a will to pass these types of issues, there’s a way to pass them because the governor and the Speaker of the House are very supportive of it,” said state Rep. Bob Hagan, D-60 of Youngstown who served on the task force. “And we recognized that there’s some very serious problems between the cities and the inner-cities that needs some serious help. We’ve gotten federal help that’s coming down from stimulus dollars. We have a president that’s interested in the cities and we have people that are interested in making sure that we revisit the problems of the cities.”