JobsOhio funding increases as job creation declines: Part 1
In 2024, JobsOhio spent $1.9 billion—enough to pay Ohio’s 235,000 unemployed workers $8,000 each. Instead, for that price tag, it created only 14,097 jobs, or 25% of the state’s total job growth.
JobsOhio, a state-authorized, nonprofit economic development corporation, was created under former Republican Gov. John Kasich in 2011 and leases the state’s liquor franchise to provide economic incentives for businesses to locate to or expand in the state. Although the state legislature established the entity and it operated with formerly public money, the agency is considered a private corporation and is exempt from open-government laws.
Its executives, meanwhile, enjoyed salaries averaging $330,283.
“The record of success that JobsOhio has had is pretty undeniable,” Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, recently bragged, echoing a PR piece JobsOhio published in The Washington Post claiming Ohio is “crushing it.”
Far from it.
The problem is that no one can show results. News outlets and critical politicians have pointed this out since the organization’s launch in 2011. Ohio Capital Journal criticized JobsOhio’s lack of transparency in 2022, asking why it doesn’t “show its math.”
The answer is simple: results are dismal, and the math is incriminating.
What’s the real ROI for Ohio taxpayers?
According to JobsOhio’s own annual reports, the average cost per job created by the nonprofit in the last five years is $126,757, or double Ohio’s $62,280 annual mean wage.
JobsOhio’s annual net operating income for the last three years has been more than $1.7 billion, with less than 15,000 jobs created in 2024. By their own metrics, JobsOhio shows an inverse relationship between operating income and jobs created over time.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows private sector jobs in Ohio increased by 26,000, 86,400, and 130,000 in 2023, 2022, and 2021. JobsOhio—the state’s official agency for economic development—reports creating 14,097, 13,597, and 7,392 in the same years.
This prompts the question: If would-be state tax dollars are being diverted into a private organization whose sole purpose is to replace the government’s Department of Development, why are they only responsible for an average of 25% of total job creations?
State Comparisons Expose Massive Waste
When comparing Ohio’s economic development efforts with similar states, the results are damning. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which have comparable populations and GDPs, both operate state departments for development with budgets of less than $1 billion. And Pennsylvania manages a development budget of less than $500 million.
What’s worse, Ohio still operates its state Department of Development—despite JobsOhio stating that under Ohio law its purpose is to “contractually carry out certain economic development functions and duties that used to be assumed by the state.”
In practice, JobsOhio has not replaced the Department of Development, but rather doubled project costs ultimately paid by Ohio residents. Combining state appropriated and JobsOhio dollars, Ohio’s total spent on economic development reaches a whopping $3.74 billion, dwarfing both Pennsylvania and New Jersey spending.
A state-to-state comparison also reveals that, despite massive spending, Ohio lags Pennsylvania and New Jersey on jobs added. BLS data shows, in the last three years, those states both averaged 1.8% job growth while Ohio only averaged 1.1%. In 2024, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey added 18,000, 54,800, and 33,400 respectively.
Job recovery after COVID has also not caught up for Ohio. While all states experienced employment drops in 2020, many recovered quickly in the following years. Ohio, however, has seen net negative job growth since 2019 when accounting for population. Job growth (1.4%) has trailed population growth (1.6%).
Where is the Money Going?
Analyzing actual results, the “undeniable” success of JobsOhio becomes questionable.
But ROI is just the first red flag. Many Ohioans also question JobsOhio’s operations and the intentional opacity of its finances and decision making.
JobsOhio executives tout its ability as a private organization to secure better deals by using non-disclosure agreements with prospective Ohio employers. These closed-door deals, they claim, provide flexibility and bigger opportunities. But many Ohioans see JobsOhio’s private status simply as a way to circumvent public reporting transparency. They believe its real purpose is to avoid accountability.
For example, the process by which JobsOhio determines where to disperse and how much grant money to approve is not public. This creates significant conflict of interest questions when many of the companies receiving the largest grants have ties to JobsOhio board members—who are appointed by Governor DeWine.
For example, the FirstEnergy scandal, which resulted in multiple indictments for bribery, is a stark example of backroom dealings. Ohio lobbying disclosures list Josh Rubin, Board Chairman of JobsOhio, as lobbying for FirstEnergy as late as Q1 2021. Rubin, who is also the CEO of a lobbying firm, is listed as lobbying for Intel in Ohio as late as Q4 2024. According to Form 990 filings, Intel is the recipient of the single largest JobsOhio grant to date, receiving $123 million in 2023.
The appearance of picking winners and losers in the Ohio economy is not helped by analysis of JobsOhio salary trends. The 17 leadership roles disclosed on JobsOhio’s 2023 990 show an average salary of $330,283, with the CEO J.P. Nauseef earning $688,757. From 2015-2023, salaries disclosed in 990s averaged $251,327, increasing every year by a low of 1.27% in 2018 and a high of 54.02% in 2020.
Average combined employee compensation reported in 990s in the most recent five years reaches $5.84 million for an average of 22 positions. Compensation paid to outside consultants during the same reporting period totals $107.3 million and money paid to international entities totals $8.17 million.
Paid consultants include organizations like partner economic development organizations, advertising, PR, and media companies. The two highest paid consultants are Madwell LLC, an ad agency that received $19.6 million in 2022 for an ad campaign and Click Here Digital, a marketing firm that received a combined $19.3 million in 2022 and 2023.
Why Was JobsOhio’s Liquor Contract Renewed?
Despite lackluster results and chronically unanswered questions from critics about transparency and accountability, the Ohio Controlling Board voted in February to renew JobsOhio’s liquor profits lease—which was set to expire in 2038—for another 15 years. The lease, which now continues through 2053, does not require any additional payments to the state for these rights. This is remarkable considering the abject inability of JobsOhio to show how it has benefited the Ohio workforce, overseeing a period of net jobs losses and unprecedented expenditures.
The contract, which provides JobsOhio’s funding model by allowing the nonprofit to control the state’s liquor franchise, generated $1.78 billion in liquor sales in 2023. The organization’s operating expenses, however, totaled $1.9 billion, leaving an operating income loss of $121 million.
Prior to the contract renewal, skeptical Ohioans like former Congressman Jim Renacci strongly opposed it.
“There’s no justification for diverting billions of dollars that could help improve quality of life in Ohio to an organization that has demonstrated its ineffectiveness for more than a decade,” Renacci said.
Who is Going to Answer for This?
The question isn’t whether JobsOhio failed. Ohioans want to know whether anyone in power ever intended for it to succeed in the first place.
Should larger questions of corruption follow on the heels of the FirstEnergy scandal and the massive, failed Intel deal to build a microchip plant in New Albany?
This study of JobsOhio’s performance is the first in a series of research-backed reporting, answering questions many Ohioans have had for years.
The next Ohio.news reports will expose deeper, looming questions about power and influence working behind the scenes to benefit the political and elite classes in Ohio, rather than its residents.
