Local State Rep. reacts to proposed G.R.O.W Act

The G.R.O.W Ohio Act was introduced Monday by State Representative Jon Cross. he says in an effort to entice young college students to stay in state after graduation, State Representative Ron Ferguson says he's in support.

"I think it's really important that we're looking at what we can do to keep our students here in the state of Ohio and keep Ohioans at home,” said State Representative for the 96th district Ron Ferguson.

G.R.O.W stands for Graduating and Retaining Ohio's Workforce. Aiming to keep young people in the area in a variety of ways including allowing them to be eligible for a full refund of state income tax for up to three years after graduation.

"I'm not really sure that something that's only applying for three years is the best way to go. I'm someone who thinks that we should eliminate the income tax altogether," said Ferguson.

Ferguson in favor of making that move across the board not just for recent college graduates.

"You look at states like Texas and Florida where they are highly successful and they don't have a state income tax and that's probably the best thing we could have," said Ferguson.

The act, if passed would create scholarships for high school students looking to get a degree in certain fields of study.

"The scholarships and things are all great but again everything that we fund is money that could be spent somewhere else and sometimes we have to look for the more pro free market approach," said Ferguson.

The proposal also includes tax credits to businesses that offer internships to college students, Ferguson says further development is needed in the area to attract people to stay.

"That's a bigger issue where we don't have enough growth in the area and of course there are a lot of big projects that can be coming along including the PTT cracker plant, we hope that happens," said Ferguson.

As the workforce is evolving out of the pandemic, working from home is seen more commonly in certain fields.

"I think now in this post Covid era a lot of folks are looking to move into nice communities and that's something that we have here with that lower cost of living because they have the option to work remotely and a lot of companies are doing that," said Ferguson.