JobsOhio plan includes state marketing

A program proposed to improve jobs training, bring in and retain more businesses and promote the state of Ohio through marketing campaigns is currently being fleshed out by Governor John Kasich, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The $2.5 billion, 25-year project will be funded by liquor sales overseen by the state liquor agency.

Mark Kvamme, the leader of JobsOhio, told the newspaper that having the state manage merchandising, distribution and regulation of alcohol will provide a "long-term revenue stream" for the program.

"We wanted to have something innovative - we wanted to have the flexibility to attract some new, great companies here in the state," Kvamme said in a separate interview with Business Journal Daily.

Although manufacturing in Ohio has made a bit of a comeback, as has the services industry, there is still much to do to create more jobs and help the state recover from the recession, Kasich said, as quoted by the source.

The program would get 75 percent of all liquor profits that are 3 percent higher year-over-year through annual deferred payments. In turn, JobsOhio would have to pay "$43 million a year to fund economic revitalization projects as described in the Ohio Constitution," the BJD notes.