COLUMBUS — Graduate with a technical or scientific degree, settle down in Ohio and pretty soon, the state may hand you cash.
Ohio students who earn “science, technology, engineering or math-based” degrees, commonly known as “STEM,” from Ohio colleges and universities could receive tax credits for staying in the state after graduation.
The credits would come courtesy of House Bill 405, recently introduced by state Reps. Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, and Jay Hottinger, R-Newark.
Under the bill, degrees approved by the Ohio Board of Regents would give students up to $500 for an associate degree, $2,000 for a bachelor’s degree and $3,000 for a master’s or doctoral degree. That money would be refunded out of their annual state income tax and could be drawn for up to 10 years.
Hottinger and Budish said there is “no science” to the credit amounts and are open to changing them. The larger point of the bill is “getting students looking at these fields, graduating from these fields, staying in the state of Ohio and attracting business here,” Hottinger said.
Under the bill, students could leave Ohio after receiving their STEM degree and still get the tax credit if they return to the state. If they work in Ohio but leave within five years, any tax credit they drew would have to be repaid.
Graduates of any Ohio school, public or private, would be eligible.
Ohio University has more than 5,000 students considered “STEM” majors, not including those who study exclusively online.
The national need for STEM graduates is driving the bill, Hottinger said. By 2018, Microsoft and other tech companies are predicting 1.2 million job openings in STEM-related fields, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
T.R. Massey, a spokesman for Battelle, said international competition for talented STEM degree holders is fierce, so “any advantage you could get by inducing someone to stay in the state ... is something we would take advantage of.”
STEMM graduates — with the last M standing for medicine — at Ohio’s 37 public colleges and universities rose 40 percent from 2007 to 2013 to 35,932, according to the regents.
But not all STEM students believe the credits will keep graduates here. Austin Way, a senior at OU studying Physics-Engineering, will most likely head out of state for graduate school — and will only come back if the best opportunities for him to conduct energy research are in Ohio.
Although the incentive is “nice,” top STEM students won’t stay in the state for a few thousand dollars, he said.
“You go where you are offered a job, not make them come to you,” Way said. “Ohio has some nice things to offer but isn’t at the forefront of the research I want to focus on.”
Will Drabold is a fellow in Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism
Statehouse News Bureau.
@Willdrabold
DD195710@ohiou.edu
Fast Facts
STEM graduates who stay in Ohio can be refunded out of their state income tax.
Associate degree $500
Bachelor’s degree $2,000
Master’s or doctoral degree $3,000
According to House Bill 405, introduced by state Reps. Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, and Jay Hottinger, R-Newark.
