Greetings, Ladies and Gents:
I don’t know about you, but the Chilean earthquake, the threat of Pacific-wide tsunamis, and the blizzard in the Northeast made the couple of inches of snow we experienced in the past day or two seem fairly insignificant. Without a doubt, we should all be thankful and generous as the requests for help in Haiti, Chile and elsewhere are made.
City Finance Director Testifies
This past week, Steve Cleaves, the Finance Director for the City of Lima, testified before the Ohio House of Representatives concerning proposed legislation that would eliminate Ohio’s income tax. Because of the profoundly disruptive impacts that would be felt locally and statewide from such legislation, Steve prepared and delivered comments that argued forcefully against such a step. By virtue of his 28 year career in the international oil business and his half dozen years of service with the City, Steve’s expertise is broadly acknowledged. But his testimony was not an expression of mere opinion. He relied upon a longstanding resource—KPMG’s Guide to International Business Locations—to validate the relatively low tax burden in Ohio and its cities.
This is a subject that deserves some study time.
Please read Steve’s 2-page testimony at http://www.cityhall.lima.oh.us/dept/local/SCleavesOhioTestimony02242010.pdf
Also, you can download KPMG’s report at http://www.competitivealternatives.com/
The bottom line: There is no free lunch. Quality of life in local communities and in our state requires public expenditures and private investments. We need to do our part as tax payers if we expect to have high quality public services that serve us well and create environments that will motivate investors to keep our economy vibrant in a global economic system.
May 2010 renewal ballot for Ohio’s Third Frontier Program
The Ohio legislature has approved the placement of a renewal for the Third Frontier Program on the May 4, 2010 ballot. The Third Frontier program—begun by Governor Bob Taft--invests in research, commercialization and entrepreneurship in technologies in high tech industry clusters. This past year, the Ohio Department of Development contracted with SRI to conduct an independent economic assessment of the first 7 years of the program’s efforts. SRI concluded that the Third Frontier program created $6.6 billion in economic impact and 41,300 jobs by making grants of $681 million to research, development and commercialization projects at academic, research and development institutions and companies, entrepreneur-development organizations and venture capital funds. An important conclusion of the business case study: the Third Frontier program is likely to pay for itself by 2014 with income and sales taxes generated by organizations receiving its grants.
You can access a copy of the 2009 Annual Report at the following: http://development.ohio.gov/ohiothirdfrontier/Documents/RecentPublications/Third_Frontier_Annual_Report2009.pdf
If you go to pp 14-15, you’ll be able to read about Lima’s American Trim and Rhodes State College teamwork under the Third Frontier Program.
As May approaches, I expect to be working to highlight the investments made in our NW Ohio region from the Third Frontier program. There’s lots to talk about.
Take care. And be well.
Dave
David & Linda Berger
1211 Lakewood Avenue
Lima, Ohio 45805
419-228-7498
dberger@wcoil.com
