A handful of Third Frontier advocates addressed 150 business leaders in a support-building session today at the Holiday Inn in Independence. Ohio's 10-year, $1.4 billion Third Frontier program plows about $140 million annually into university research, technology commercialization, venture capital investments and new-business support.
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- The campaign to extend Ohio's high-tech growth program by four years and $700 million must crank up quickly because early voting for the May 4 primary begins in little over a month, officials say.
Supporters should "ask for forgiveness, not permission" in aggressively pursuing every opportunity to extol the Third Frontier program, says David Wilhelm, co-chair of the Issue 1 campaign.
Wilhelm was among a handful of Third Frontier advocates addressing 150 business leaders in a support-building session today at the Holiday Inn in Independence.
Ohio's 10-year, $1.4 billion Third Frontier program plows about $140 million annually into university research, technology commercialization, venture capital investments and new-business support.
Approval of Issue 1 would increase the annual investment to about $175 million and extend the program to 2016.
Estimates put the number of jobs created at 48,000 and the economic impact at $6.6 billion-plus.
Issue 1 supporters noted that early voting begins March 30 in Ohio and that a $500 million bond issue for Third Frontier received only 53 percent of the vote in 2005.
"We've got to fight for this thing," Wilhelm said.
Officials with the Issue 1 campaign committee, called "United for Jobs and Ohio's Future," say they need to raise $3.5 million to $4 million, most of which should come from Ohio's business community.
The campaign launched a Web site Tuesday.
Ohio's legislature voted overwhelmingly earlier this month to put the renewal before voters.
Several Republican legislators have criticized the program as corporate welfare. There is no formal opposition so far.