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Controlling Board approves All Ohio Future Fund award for Warren access road; lawmakers press for clearer legislative notification
Summary
The State Controlling Board approved a Development Department item to fund an access road on about 1,000 acres near Warren in Trumbull County under the All Ohio Future Fund; members pressed staff for clarity on grant-vs-loan mix and for earlier legislative briefing on awards.
The State Controlling Board on April 7 approved a Development Department submittal to fund an access road that officials say will enable development on roughly 1,000 acres outside the city of Warren in Trumbull County.
A Department of Development representative told the board the project will construct an access road and related work to provide truck access to multiple large sites, and that the road is expected to encourage future employers to locate there. "The expectation is that potentially hundreds of jobs could be created given the number of sites in this area," the department representative said.
Lawmakers used the discussion to push for clearer notice and documentation about how All Ohio Future Fund awards are structured. Representative Stewart asked whether the item is a grant or loan; the department said awards under the program are presented as a combination of forgivable loan and grant, typically negotiated post-approval and often around a roughly 50/50 mix. The department described the forgivability criteria in its program guidelines: award forgiveness is tied to securing an end user in one of JobsOhio’s targeted sectors and meeting a median-wage threshold of at least 125% of the community median wage.
Representative Sweeney and Senator Ingram also asked for a geographic breakdown and a fuller accounting of the fund’s pipeline. The department told the board it has a pipeline exceeding $1 billion in project interest and expects roughly $500 million to $600 million in potential activity in the coming months; staff offered to provide a map of pipeline sites.
Several legislators said they were not consistently notified about program approvals and urged the administration to improve communication before projects reach the controlling board. Senator Cerino said she and others had found members of their chambers unaware of projects affecting their districts and urged that no additional items be submitted from the All Ohio Future Fund until communication issues are addressed.
The board approved the item by voice vote with no recorded objections.
