Week in Review: Sept. 29, 2024

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/URBAN REVITALIZATION

Awards in the fifth rounds of the Brownfield Remediation and Building Demolition and Site Revitalization programs totaled $16.2 million to clean up and redevelop 52 brownfield sites and $33.1 million to demolish 341 vacant, dilapidated buildings. The Ohio Department of Development has awarded a total of nearly $470 million in the Brownfield Remediation Program and over $233 million in the Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program. The two programs help make space for new economic opportunities at sites that currently could not be developed due to contamination or the presence of vacant, dilapidated structures.

More than $18.2 million in grants will go to 34 communities to complete critical infrastructure and neighborhood improvement projects, Gov. Mike DeWine announced recently. Of the total funding from the federal Community Development Block Grant program, 10 communities will receive $7.5 million in Neighborhood Revitalization grants. Eligible projects include public facility improvements such as construction, reconstruction, or rehabilitation of infrastructure, improvements to fire protection facilities, and community centers in low- and moderate-income areas. A total of $10.7 million in Critical Infrastructure funding will go to 24 communities to assist with high-priority infrastructure improvements with community-wide impact including improvement of flood and drainage facilities, water and sanitary sewer facilities, parks and recreation facilities, street reconstruction, and sidewalks.

Gov. Mike DeWine's administration announced Monday the approval of assistance for seven projects expected to create 458 new jobs and retain 357 jobs statewide. During its monthly meeting, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority reviewed economic development proposals brought by JobsOhio and its regional partners. The projects are expected to collectively result in more than $34 million in new payroll and spur more than $132 million in investments across Ohio.

ECONOMY

Ohio's unemployment rate remained at 4.5% in August as the state lost 4,400 jobs over the month, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) announced Friday. ODFJS said Ohio's nonagricultural wage and salary employment decreased from a revised 5,668,400 in July to 5,664,000 in August. The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in August was 263,000, down from 264,000 in July. That number has risen by 61,000 in the past 12 months from 202,000. The August unemployment rate for Ohio has increased 1 percentage point from 3.5% in August 2023. The U.S. unemployment rate for August 2024 was 4.2%, down from 4.3% in July 2024 and up from 3.8% in August 2023.

ELECTIONS 2024

Ohio Secretary of State (SOS) Frank LaRose announced Friday that the state's 2024 general election was officially underway, as the 88 county boards of elections started sending out ballots to military and overseas voters. According to LaRose's office, "Both federal and state laws govern absentee voting by uniformed services and overseas United States citizens. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act are federal laws enacted to protect the rights of United States citizens to vote in federal elections while they are serving in the uniformed services or residing overseas. As a freshman state senator, LaRose helped lead the initiative to incorporate those federal protections into the Ohio Revised Code and extend them to state and local elections."

INTEL

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted told members of the InnovateOhio Executive Committee Tuesday that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger had given him reassurances about the status of Intel's Ohio project amid recent developments, including that it and other Intel foundry operations will be shifted to an independent subsidiary. Husted said the conversation with Gelsinger and his executive team occurred Friday and they were "very positive about all the things going on at the Ohio site. They reassured us that they have 2,400 people currently working there [and] 28 cranes in operation," Husted said. He added that while Intel has pulled back from some of their global investments, "Ohio is very well positioned" due to support provided by state and local governments, and so Intel is proceeding as planned. Husted also noted Intel has not received funds directly through the CHIPS Act yet, which is creating "a little bit of capital allocation strain" and that the U.S. still doesn't have a domestic supply of semiconductor chips.

TAXATION

The City Club of Cleveland held a spirited discussion on state and local tax policy Friday with panelists Greg Lawson, a research fellow at the Buckeye Institute, and Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy. Also on the panel were Ohio Association of Foodbanks Executive Director Joree Novotny and Policy Matters Ohio Tax Policy Researcher Bailey Williams. It was moderated by Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

The Ohio Supreme Court Thursday unanimously ruled that the Ohio Department of Taxation's (ODT) calculations for the tax rate for the clearing of wooded areas of agricultural lands was not based on any data or evidence and ordered the recalculation of those rates based on reliable data and evidence. In an opinion authored by Justice Melody Stewart and joined by all of her colleagues, the Court said that the current agricultural use values (CAUV) for woodlands for tax years 2015-2020 were not "accurate, reliable, and practical" as required by the Ohio Administrative Code. Prior to 2015, the tax commissioner applied a clearing-cost rate of $500 per acre for woodlands. In 2015, the tax commissioner adjusted the rate, doubling it to $1,000. The tax commissioner then carried that rate through to 2020. A number of landowners appealed the $1,000 CAUV to the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals (BTA), claiming that the clearing cost-rate for woodlands was "unreasonable and arbitrary."