State Legislators Call for Renewal of Ohio Third Frontier

State representatives Jay Goyal, D-Mansfield and Sandra Williams, D-Cleveland, announced they plan to co-sponsor a joint resolution to seek voter approval for $1 billion in bonds over five years to support the continuation of the Ohio Third Frontier program, the economic development initiataive launched in 2002 aimed at helping Ohio develop an innovation-driven, high-tech economy.   “Ohio’s future economic prosperity depends on our ability to shift from traditional manufacturing industries to the high-growth, technology-intensive industries of tomorrow,” says Goyal.  “Third Frontier not only accelerates our economic transition, it also creates good paying jobs for Ohioans.” 
 
In fact,a recent report from SRI Internatlional, and commissioned by the Ohio Third Frontier, confirms that the program can be credited with creating jobs, dramatically increasing the availability of early-stage capital and improving the environment for technology entrepreneurs --  all outcomes that are critical to the support of compnay formation and startups.   Startups and young companies are seen as particularly important to the economic recovery and global competitiveness of the state and the nation. 
 
According toa recent Kauffman Foundation report, young companies, and in particular startups, are responsible for nearly all net job creation in the US since 1980.  New firms, those younger than five years old, have been and are likley to continue to be, the real engines of job growth in America.  Startups have been found to be the primary source of immediate job creation in the US for the past 30 years. As a matter of fact, without startups, net job creation for the American economy since 1977 would have been negative in all but a handful of years. 
 
The SRI report says that the Ohio Third Frontier has dramatically increased the state's entreprenurial and startup capacity and that state expenditures of $681 million have generated $6.6 billion of economic activity, 41,300 jobs and $2.4 billion in employee wages and benefis. Further, the report shows that between 2004-2008, venture capital investments in Ohio grew 13.2 percent (from $243 million to $445.6 milllion) - more than double the annual growth rate (5.1 percent) of US VC investments during the same period.
 
Ohio Third Frontier can also be credited with driving employment growth within the state with total employment in Ohio's high-tech industries growing 4.0 percent (19,198 jobs) during the period 2004-2008 despite an economic recession that began in 2007. In contrast, all other industry sectors in the state experienced a decline of 7,247 jobs during hte same timeframe. 

“Ohio’s Third Frontier is recognized nationally as one of the most innovative state initiatives ever conceived to accelerate the growth of state and regional tech economies.  It is critical that we sustain and expand it to gain the greatest benefits and the high paid jobs it is generating," says Ted Ford, president and CEO of TechColumbus. 
 
For more details on the Ohio Third Frontier, visit the website