COLUMBUS, Ohio — For more than a decade, JobsOhio has operated as one of the most powerful economic forces in the state while remaining largely invisible to the public that funds it. A bill introduced in the Ohio Senate aims to change that.
Senate Bill 420, introduced by Senator Sandra O’Brien, would strip away the legal shields that have allowed JobsOhio to hand out hundreds of millions of dollars in public-backed incentives while keeping its records, meetings, and decision-making hidden from taxpayers, journalists, and even many elected officials.
What is JobsOhio, and why does it matter?
JobsOhio was created by the state of Ohio and operates on revenue derived from the state’s liquor monopoly — money that flows from a government-controlled enterprise into a private nonprofit with a board appointed by the governor. It is tasked with recruiting businesses to Ohio, retaining existing employers, and distributing tax credits, grants, and loans to companies that promise jobs and investment.
The agency wields enormous influence over where businesses locate, which communities receive investment, and how public incentive dollars are spent. Yet because it was structured as a private nonprofit rather than a state agency, it has been explicitly carved out of Ohio’s Public Records Act and its Open Meetings Law since the beginning — meaning the public has had virtually no legal right to see what it does or how it decides to do it.
What the bill would actually do
SB 420 makes three targeted but significant changes.
It would bring JobsOhio’s records under Ohio’s Public Records Law for the first time. Currently, the law explicitly defines JobsOhio as outside the definition of “public office” — a legal maneuver that places it beyond the reach of records requests. The bill strikes that exclusion. Under SB 420, any Ohioan could request and receive JobsOhio documents the same way they can obtain a police report or a government contract.
It would require JobsOhio’s board to hold open meetings subject to the same Open Meetings Law that governs school boards, county commissioners, and city councils. Board meetings would have to be publicly noticed in advance, open to attendance, and documented in minutes available for public inspection. The secret deliberations that have characterized JobsOhio’s board operations since its founding would no longer be legally permissible.
And it would require the Ohio Auditor of State to conduct an annual independent performance audit of JobsOhio — examining not just the financials, but whether the agency is actually delivering on the economic promises it makes on behalf of Ohio taxpayers. Currently, JobsOhio’s only audit is a private financial review conducted by an accounting firm hired by its own board.
The transparency gap has real consequences
JobsOhio distributes incentives worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. When a company receives a JobsOhio grant or tax credit in exchange for promised job creation, the public currently has no meaningful way to verify whether those jobs were actually created, how the decision to award the incentive was made, or what alternatives were considered.
Reporters and watchdog groups have spent years trying to pry information from JobsOhio through public records requests — only to be told the law doesn’t apply. Legislators have raised similar concerns, noting that an agency funded by a state-controlled revenue stream and empowered to make decisions with statewide economic consequences should not be operating under a different set of rules than every other public body in Ohio.
The bill has been introduced and referred to committee. It has not yet received a hearing date in the Senate.