Ohio Expositions Commission seeks larger biennial budget as fairgrounds construction continues

Adam Heffern, executive director of the Ohio Expositions Commission, told the Ohio House Agriculture Committee that the commission is requesting continued state support for youth programming and increases in operating funds as it completes a multi‑year construction program.

Heffern testified the commission is “largely financially self sustaining with revenue from both the state fair and year round events” but asked lawmakers to continue general‑assembly support that in the previous biennium provided about $380,000 annually to help pay premiums and awards for youth livestock exhibitors and to house and feed the all‑Ohio state fair band and youth choir. “This is my dream job, so to speak,” Heffern said at the hearing.

The testimony sketched the scale and cost pressures behind the request. Heffern said overall operating expenses for the next biennium are projected at roughly $20,000,000–$21,000,000 annually (he described the figure both as “around $21,000,000 annually” and later as “about $20,000,000 in our next biennial”) and that about half the annual budget covers production of the 12‑day Ohio…