Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is keeping his pressure campaign on JobsOhio, urging its leaders to slow a deal to extend the lease of state liquor profits.
Last week, Ohio’s top law enforcement official said he wants to delay extending a deal to lease state liquor profits to JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development corporation. He said the proposal is “a deal that requires nothing in return from the private corporation.”
The state is considering adding 15 years to JobsOhio’s 25-year state liquor profits lease.
JobsOhio was formed under former Gov. John Kasich in 2011. In 2013, the nonprofit agency raised capital via the bond market to obtain the rights for Ohio’s Liquor enterprise through 2038 for approximately $1.4 billion.
“The liquor business belongs to the people of Ohio,” Yost told The Windsor Report podcast. “Leveraging that to create this ... sophisticated economic development tool is probably a good idea.”
However, Yost called the return “light.” He questioned why the extension does not require a similar payment.
During the interview on The Windsor Report, Yost said that he has a plan “for a better deal that will fulfill JobsOhio’s mission, make more jobs for Ohioans and do some other good things.” However, he said he didn’t want to do it via the media.
“I just think they’re going to love it if they can find time to sit down and talk with me,” Yost said. “... I’m hoping that they’re going to agree [that] sitting down and working through this is a good idea.
“...Two more weeks so that we can work through this isn’t going to be that big of a deal,” Yost said.
The attorney general said JobsOhio canceled a Friday meeting and cannot reschedule it before the Controlling Board considers the extension on Wednesday. The attorney general said he subsequently spoke with JobsOhio representatives and urged them to delay the approval of the deal.
In a separate letter to the Office of Budget and Management Director Kim Murnieks, Yost asks the Controlling Board to hold off on considering the extension during Wednesday’s meeting.
“All I’ve got here is a bully pulpit. I don’t have a vote, and I don’t have a veto,” Yost said. “If they want to hammer this through ... without any discussion, I can’t stop them. All I can do is put a little bit of light onto the situation and ask a few questions and say, ... ‘I think we can do something better here.’”
Separately, a new Ohio news investigation revealed that the tens of thousands of jobs that JobsOhio has claimed to have created have come at a high cost.
Between 2015 and 2023, JobsOhio reported creating 170,941 jobs. With a net operating income of $12.7 billion during that time, or more than $1.4 billion per year for those nine years, each job cost an average of $74,281.
Since its inception, lawmakers have given JobsOhio a mixed reception. However, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine recently lauded the agency, saying it is the envy of governors.
“Ask the other states—everybody is envious, other governors are envious of JobsOhio,” Statehouse News Bureau quoted DeWine as saying. “It will allow us to continue to win. If we want to continue to win, we have to have JobsOhio in the game.”
In an op-ed published in The Columbus Dispatch, Steve Stivers, president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and Pat Tiberi, president and CEO of Ohio Business Roundtable, argued against the one-time payment.
The “majority of that payment was necessary to retire the debts associated with the old state liquor franchise,” they wrote. “A new one-time payment would not serve the same purpose and, more importantly, would severely limit JobsOhio’s ability to execute the projects that have driven Ohio’s recent economic success.”
