Rein in JobsOhio
Agency’s history of lack of transparency does not inspire confidence.
The Editorial Board
Thu, 05 Dec 2019 05:00:00 GMT
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JobsOhio, the private, nonprofit economic development agency, is in need of some reforms. The reforms it needs, however, are not the reforms the agency is seeking.
JobsOhio officials want to broaden the mandate of the agency and begin taking stakes in private companies it supports. The agency also wants to begin investing in more small, growing companies than it has in the past.
The changes would be a new direction for JobsOhio, created in 2011 under former Gov. John Kasich to replace the more traditional Ohio Department of Development. The agency uses profits from Ohio’s state liquor operation to fund grants and incentive deals.
Just how successful the agency has been, however, remains largely a mystery because many details of how it works have always been shielded from public scrutiny. JobsOhio does not release the full details of the economic development deals it offers. The agency also doesn’t provide specifics on whether companies that benefit from the deals live up to the terms of them with job creation and investment.
After news organizations demanded more transparency, JobsOhio did reveal the salaries of its top executives last year. Revelations that the agency’s average salary was six figures and that John F. Minor, Jr., former president and chief investment officer, was paid more than $620,000 a year did not engender public confidence.
Calls for even more transparency have continued through the first year of Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration and Mr. DeWine has insisted that the agency will be more forthcoming on his watch.
But now the agency wants to venture into territory that even Mr. Kasich eventually deemed too risky. Some observers also worried that using JobsOhio money to buy a part of a private company may not be constitutional.
The DeWine administration should reach the same conclusion and rein in the risky proposal JobsOhio officials are pitching.
The governor should revisit the calls to make JobsOhio’s more transparent, not less so. The terms of the deals it makes and the details of whether those deals yield tangible economic development benefits for Ohio should not be secret.
JobsOhio’s track record argues for giving the agency less leeway, not more.