In the midst of a growing ethics investigation, Gov. Bob Taft visited Athens Tuesday to present $200,000 to the Progress Fund, a lending organization that aims to help grow Appalachian businesses.
In the auditorium at the Ridges, Taft spoke about the Progress Fund's goal to get a lot more capital to this whole region; to develop tourism; to help small companies get off the ground
to really grow some homegrown businesses that will be in this area of Southeast Ohio for a long time to come.
The Progress Fund, founded in 1997, has lent more than $11 million to more than 100 businesses in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, helping to create some 800 jobs, said the group's president David Kahley.
Appalachian Ohio already has a tourism economy that supports over 60 000 jobs and that generates more than 3 million in revenue Taft said. We believe that's just the tip of the iceberg.
The fund targets the tourism industry and local entrepreneurs whose business endeavors might make traditional banks shy away from financing them, with the ultimate goal to create more jobs in the Appalachian region.
The two largest hurdles for tourism businesses are financing and marketing
Kahley said. Unfortunately
traditional banks
which are in the business of making stockholders money
are not necessarily involved in economic development and solving those problems. But we are.
Kahley said many of the businesses the Progress Fund works with -cabin rentals, rafting outfitters and organic farmers -don't have the sort of collateral that banks trust.
We have a mission
he said. No. 1 is job growth. No. 2 is job growth. That's what we're about.
The fund already has a foothold in Southeastern Ohio, with offices in Ohio University's Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs. The center's 11 full-time business consultants and 60 MBA students work with local businesses to help them secure financing and develop marketing plans.
Hugh Sherman, the center's associate director, said the Progress Fund's work will dovetail with the center's goals, but is specifically geared toward developing the region's tourism economy -something a traditional bank can't afford to develop
Sherman said. It's too risky and they have other demands
he said.
The Ohio Ethics Commission is investigating Taft's failure to report as many as 60 golf outings during several years.
Last week, Taft's former chief of staff, Brian Hicks, pleaded no contest to filing a false financial disclosure statement involving vacations at the Florida home of coin dealer Tom Noe, a GOP fundraiser.
Questions about Noe's investment of $50 million in state funds in rare coins has ballooned into a scandal involving $300 million in losses at the workers' compensation bureau and several state and federal investigations.
Ñ The Associated Press contributed to this report.
