Term in JobsOhio audit encouraging legal foes

COLUMBUS (AP) — Opponents of the nonprofit job-creation entity JobsOhio believe they have found new ammunition for their legal arguments embedded in the wording of an independent audit.

In a financial review released Friday, the accounting firm KPMG deemed JobsOhio a “component unit” of the state of Ohio.

To plaintiffs in two lawsuits against Gov. John Kasich’s signature economic program, that’s proof that JobsOhio is not private but associated with the government.

Under Kasich, the state Legislature created JobsOhio to replace the Ohio Department of Development. The first-term Republican governor said he wanted a job-creation entity that was more nimble and could “move at the speed of business.”

“The audit says what our court case has said all along, which is that this is using public money in a private corporation, something that our Ohio Constitution prohibits,” ProgressOhio executive director Brian Rothenberg said.

The liberal think tank joined two Democratic state lawmakers in filing a constitutional challenge to JobsOhio, which is now before the Ohio Supreme Court.