Leadership

Obhof Calls for Regulatory Reform

At a press conference this week, Senate President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) called for additional reforms of Ohio’s regulatory environment. He was joined by Dr. James Broughel of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, who recently completed a study on the number of regulatory restrictions the state imposes.

Mercatus has studied the regulatory environments of 22 states so far as part of its ongoing “State RegData” project. Their study concluded that Ohio is one of the most heavily regulated states they have analyzed, trailing only New York and Illinois, and far surpassing the neighboring states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Senator Obhof proposed: “Tracking and accounting of the total number of restrictions in Ohio; allowing for a more thorough review process of which regulations are effective and which are outdated or duplicative; setting a reduction goal to bring Ohio more in-line with the national average and consider placing a cap once that goal is achieved; consider eliminating two rules for every new one that is created for the next three years, or until the reduction target is met.” 3/22/2018

OMA-PAC Endorses Supreme Court of Ohio Candidates

The OMA-PAC board of directors this week endorsed candidates in the two races for the Ohio Supreme Court seats: Justice Mary DeGenaro and Judge Craig Baldwin.

Justice DeGenaro was appointed to replace William O’Neill, who resigned to run for governor. She had served on Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals in Youngstown since 2001 and previously served on the Poland Village Council. She has a bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University and a law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

Baldwin is a state appellate court judge from the Fifth District in Canton. He was appointed to the Fifth District in 2013 after serving eight years as a Licking County Common Pleas judge. He previously was the director of the Licking County Child Support Enforcement Agency. Baldwin graduated from Ohio University and Capital University Law School. 3/15/2017

(Pictured: Jane Neal, Sr. Vice President, AMG Vanadium LLC, and OMA board of directors first vice president with Justice Mary DeGenaro)

Manufacturer Michael Canty for State Rep

The OMA-PAC board of directors has endorsed Michael Canty for state representative in House District 6.

Canty is the owner of OMA-member Allows Bellow and Precision Welding in Cleveland. He has grown the business from 25 employees in 2006 to more than 110 employees today. During these years, Michael has been involved with many civic organizations.

He will bring to the Ohio General Assembly a deep understanding of the effects of legislation and regulation on the operation of business, as well as broad experience in working in leadership roles of organizations involved in public policy. 3/15/2018

(Pictured: Michael Canty, candidate for the Ohio House 6th District representing parts of Cuyahoga County)

OMA Board Elects Directors

At its quarterly meeting this week, the OMA board of directors elected three new directors:

• J. Daniels, General Manager, Gorman-Rupp Pumps USA
• Steve Irwin, Plant Manager, Circleville, DuPont
• Julia Sabin, Vice President, Government Relations and Corporate Sustainability, The J.M. Smucker Co.

Additionally the board elected two members to its Executive Committee:

• Pam Heminger, Vice President, Business Operations, Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc.
• Billy Vickers, President & CEO, Modular Assembly Innovations LLC

Scott Balogh, President & CEO, Mar-Bal, Inc. and chairman of the OMA board of directors, said that OMA’s strength comes directly from the extraordinary quality of its volunteer leaders. 3/15/2018

See Who Donated to Whom, and How Much

Have you ever wondered who is donating money to political candidates and office holders? Well, Cleveland.com is making it easy to research campaign donations in Ohio.

This week, Cleveland.com introduced a handy tool to help readers search 2017 campaign donations in the state of Ohio. The searchable database has gathered all of the 2017 contributions to candidates for governor, attorney general and other state offices.

You can search donors by name, city or zip code; or you can search by candidate and office. 3/15/2018

PhRMA Supports Addiction Prevention in Ohio

The OMA participated in a legislative briefing hosted by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) this week. According to this fact, the bio-pharmaceutical sector contributed $27.1 billion in state economic output with average compensation per employee of $94,740.

The keynote presentation was delivered by Jessica Hulsey Nickel who is the founder, president and CEO of the Addition Policy Forum (APF). She presented poignant remarks about the pain and suffering of so many individuals and their families who are harmed by substance addiction. Nickel detailed work being performed to respond to the growing epidemic that includes prevention, treatment, recovery and criminal justice reform. PhRMA is supporting APF with a multi-year, multi-million dollar initiative. 3/15/2018

Rep. Ryan Covers Key Races at OMA Gov’t. Affairs Meeting

Rep. Scott Ryan (R-Newark), chairman of the Ohio House Republican Campaign Committee, visited with the OMA Government Affairs Committee this week. Ryan provided an overview of key House races this year, including an unusually high number of primary races.

Also visiting the committee was Michael Canty, who is running for the House District 6 seat being vacated by term-limited Rep. Anielski. Canty is the owner of OMA member company Alloy Bellows and Precision Welding, Cleveland. 3/8/2017

JobsOhio 2017 Annual Report & 2018 Strategic Plan

This annual report provides an overview of how JobsOhio executes its mission to drive job creation, new capital investment, and economic growth in Ohio through business attraction, retention, and expansion efforts.

In 2017, JobsOhio indicates its involvement resulted in:

• 272 projects announced
• 22,788 new job commitments
• 67,849 existing jobs retained
• $1.1 billion in new payroll
• $9.6 billion in new capital investments

3/5/2018

Open House at Ohio State’s Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence

The Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME), which is one of Ohio’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership organizations, is holding an open house for small to medium-size manufacturers on Friday, March 16.

You can see how CDME uses the intellectual and physical assets of The Ohio State University and surrounding research community to develop and commercialize products.

Details here. 3/8/2018

Ohio Ranked 2nd by Site Selection

Every year since 2012, Ohio has been ranked second by Site Selection magazine in qualifying new projects. And each year, we’re second to Texas. (We were number one in 2009 and 2011.)

Site Selection ranks states by the number of qualifying new projects. Projects are eligible if they meet three criteria: 1) investment of at least $1M, 2) square footage of 20,000 or more, and 3) job creation of 20 or more.

Ohio posted 467 qualifying projects in 2017, at least half of which, according to the Ohio Development Services Agency, were manufacturing projects. 3/8/2018