State Auditor Dave Yost issued a subpoena for the financial records of JobsOhio yesterday after Gov. John Kasich’s privatized economic-development agency failed to turn them over.
“They are not cooperating with our attempts to audit them,” Yost told The Dispatch, asserting his legal authority to review the finances of the private entity that spearheads Kasich’s efforts to attract jobs to the state.
The subpoena gives JobsOhio until Wednesday to turn over all financial records through the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012.
The General Assembly created JobsOhio early in 2011 through the enactment of House Bill 1 shortly after Kasich became governor.
News of the subpoena came amid new questions about just how much taxpayer money has been poured into JobsOhio and how it got there apparently without state lawmakers knowing about it.
Yost said he issued the subpoena after several months of negotiations between his office and Jobs-Ohio chief financial officer Kevin Giangola, and only after “it became clear over the last three days or so that we weren’t going to hear back from JobsOhio.”
Yost added, “I was told that the CFO said it wasn’t going to be his decision.”
The auditor was unsure if the decision not to cooperate was made by the governor’s office, but he said he had heard “third-hand through the legislative process” that the Kasich administration might attempt to insert an amendment into the state transportation budget bill to clarify his authority to audit JobsOhio.
Additional Coverage
- JobsOhio used millions in extra public funds (The Columbus Dispatch)
- Kasich on JobsOhio’s financial records: ‘It’s complicated’ (The Columbus Dispatch)
- Gov. John Kasich calls dispute with Auditor Dave Yost over JobsOhio a misunderstanding (The Plain Dealer)
