The Columbus Dispatch | Jim Siegel
Asked on Wednesday if JobsOhio is working, House Speaker Larry Householder didn’t offer a definitive answer.
“I don’t know,” the Glenford Republican said of the state’s quasi-private economic development entity. “That’s part of our transparency problem.”
With Gov. John Kasich no longer around to protect his brainchild, which he designed as a way for the state to more rapidly respond to business needs and improve job creation, Republican legislative leaders are gearing up to institute more oversight and transparency of JobsOhio.
Republican Auditor Keith Faber and Attorney General Dave Yost agree the nonprofit needs more oversight.
“I still think it’s a fair question: are we getting out money’s worth out of JobsOhio?” Yost tweeted last week in response to a Dispatch story about new data that cut in half Ohio’s job gains from 2018.
As auditor, Yost for years clashed with the Kasich administration over his role in reviewing the books of JobsOhio, where employee salaries and benefits increased an average of 18 percent last year, including an $87,000 jump for John Minor Jr., the outgoing president.