Chairman Dolan, Ranking Member Sykes, and members of the Senate Finance Committee: thank you for providing me with this opportunity to provide interested party testimony on House Bill 110.
I am here to once again request your consideration of an amendment to the state budget to provide funding to the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund. While Greater Ohio recognizes the budget bill thoughtfully considers many of Ohio’s most pressing needs, investing in the revitalization and redevelopment of brownfields has a proven record of success for the state of Ohio.
Ohio was once a national leader in brownfield redevelopment through the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund (CORF). CORF, which was approved by Ohio voters in 2000 and renewed in 2008, provided $400 million through liquor-based bonded funds to communities across Ohio to revitalize brownfield sites. The creation of JobsOhio transferred Ohio’s state-owned liquor agency to the private economic development agency, and with it the bulk of Ohio’s brownfield funding.
GOPCs own research has found that for every one dollar invested by the state in brownfield revitalization, the revitalized sites generated an additional $4.67 in new economic activity. In cleanup alone, CORF contributed $1.4 billion annually to Ohio’s GDP. New construction and ongoing tax revenues from the businesses or homes on the remediated sites continue to contribute to the state’s economy today. This is to say nothing of the added benefit to enhancing the value to surrounding properties that were adversely impacted by the presence of the brownfield site nearby.
For Ohio to remain competitive in business re-shoring, resources must be made available to local communities to revitalize these once-productive sites.
While GOPC strongly supports a permeant, dedicated source of funding for brownfield revitalization, our first concern is that funding be made available for revitalization efforts in general. While we continue to support the amendment which would dedicate all, or a portion of the ‘deferred payments’ the state receives from JobsOhio from excess liquor profits, we also support alternate options, which would include use of one-time funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) being made available for brownfield revitalization, or the repurposing of the funding currently found in the Abandoned Gas Station Cleanup Grant Program operated by the Ohio Development Services Agency. This is a legacy program from the original CORF program, and could be used as seed money for an eventual, fully funded CORF program.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony and I am happy to answer any questions the committee may have.