By MARC KOVAC

COLUMBUS — The Ohio House OK’d a resolution Wednesday to seek voter support to continue funding for a program that backs high-tech companies.

On a vote of 85-13, the chamber signed off on the five-year, $950 million continuation of the Third Frontier program.

The resolution next heads to the Ohio Senate for further consideration. Both chambers must act within three weeks in order to place the issue before voters during the May primary.

The Third Frontier program was created about eight years ago as a means of investing state funds in bio-medical, aerospace and other high-tech businesses. Studies by different groups state that the program has created tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of businesses.

The existing 10-year, $1.6 billion program expires in 2012, and lawmakers want to ensure continued funding.

The proposed constitutional amendment OK’d by the House Wednesday would provide about $190 million per year for five additional years, said Rep. Sandra Williams, a Democrat from the Cleveland area and co-sponsor of the legislation. The resolution also calls for an independent reviewer to consider all projects prior to awarding Third Frontier funding.

If voters approve, the state would be authorized to issue bonds (essentially borrowing money) to pay for the program.

Democratic House Speaker Armond Budish countered criticism about whether it was prudent for the state to be spending nearly a billion dollars on the program, given the present economic downturn.

“It does put people back to work,” Budish said of Third Frontier. “It does create good jobs. And I believe that when people understand that they will fully support it.”

Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Republican from Wooster, also is supporting the new issue, much as he did when it was first offered under Republican Gov. Bob Taft. But he said he would like to see bond issue scaled back.

He said Third Frontier has proven successful in providing funding for early-stage companies trying to commercialize new technologies.

“We have gone from way down the line to actually a leader in the availability of early-stage funding to help seed and then grow in the early stages the companies that are going to be the future of our state,” he said.

But other Republicans are not backing the bond issue. Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, from Napoleon in northwestern Ohio, called the bill a boondoggle and corporate welfare that will hurt the state’s free marketplace.

“The marketplace is a wonderful place,” he said. “Sometimes it is a very painful place. But it has built within it filters that make businesses by and large much stronger by having to make tough choices, by having to work harder to earn that capital or that investment.”

He added, “This (Third Frontier) money isn’t free. The last time I checked, the trees outside here had not started to grow money. This money comes from other business owners, other people who may choose to invest in companies on their own… We dry up money elsewhere by taking money away from one group of Ohioans and giving it to another.”

Source: The Daily record

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