Gov. Ted Strickland was in Mayfield today as part of a statewide blitz for Issue 1, the primary ballot vote on extending Ohio's high-tech development efforts.
MAYFIELD, Ohio -- Gov. Ted Strickland found a hero in Mayfield today.
Hiroyuki "Hiro" Fujita, president and chief executive of Quality Electrodynamics, soaked up waves of praise from Strickland and others, part of the governor's 11th-hour blitz to promote Tuesday's vote on high-tech development in Ohio.
The governor would later head to Youngstown State University and is scheduled to hit two other regions of the state today, spotlighting efforts that have benefited from Ohio's Third Frontier program.
Voters on Tuesday will decide Issue 1, which aims to extend the 10-year, $1.4 billion program for four years through 2016, at a cost of $700 million in new debt.
Third Frontier doles out money for technologies, companies and products that have high commercial potential. The goal is to help them attract other money, move more quickly to market and create sorely needed jobs.
Strickland and Issue 1 advocates note that Third Frontier supports 55,000 jobs and has helped more than 600 companies.
Voters will decide "whether or not the most critical economic development tool available to our state is continued," Strickland said. "I don't know that I can overstate the importance of this program."
Strickland acknowledged concern that large numbers of Ohioans don't understand the program's importance.
That's why he put his arm around Fujita in the company's lobby and extolled Quality Electrodynamics as one of the state's finest examples of Third Frontier investment, as news people looked on.
In an interview, Fujita said he benefited in 2005 from $500,000 in Third Frontier money, funneled through Case Western Reserve University. Fujita earned his doctorate at the school and incubated his company there.
Quality Electrodynamics later received a $350,000 grant from the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, a Cleveland Clinic-led venture that's heavily funded by Third Frontier.
In four years, the company has grown to more than 60 employees, as a supplier of magnetic resonance imaging coils to companies including Toshiba Medical Systems and Siemens Healthcare.
"I've been told I can appropriately call you Dr. Hiro," Strickland said to Fujita, "because we consider you our hero for what you are accomplishing."
Strickland said he is encouraged by polling that he's seen on Issue 1.
There's been little organized opposition, as every major newspaper, business and labor group has endorsed Issue 1.
But critics said Ohio should not be taking on more debt, when it faces a multibillion-dollar shortfall in next year's budget.
Critics also decry Third Frontier as "corporate welfare."
Third Frontier supporters are uneasy that Republican primary races for state-level offices will draw out more conservative voters, who might oppose state government taking on more debt or extending a large program.
Strickland noted that Democrats and Republicans alike voted overwhelmingly to put the issue on the ballot.