• 5,000 jobs created and $2 Billion invested locally

Columbus City Council is expected to vote on accepting the recommendations of the Tax Inventive Review Council (TIRC) for City tax incentive agreements for 2021. The TIRC Council is an independent body that assesses the City’s portfolio of Enterprise Zone and Community Reinvestment Area Agreements to monitor how companies receiving City tax incentives are meeting their promised capital investment, payroll generation, job creation and job retention commitments.

The Council makes a recommendation to continue, reexamine or rescinded incentives, which are presented to City Council for review every year.

The 2021 report found that the performance of the 93 companies in receipt of Enterprise Zone and Community Reinvestment Area incentives mirrored broader economic trends in 2021. Job creation, job retention and capital investment relative to incentive commitments all rose over 2020 levels, as the economy continued to rebound from the pandemic.

“The 2021 review of our incentive portfolio shows that we’re making wise investments with our community resources, partnering with organizations that have created nearly 5,000 new jobs and invested almost $2 billion in Columbus properties. These investments will yield city tax revenue for years to come, funding public safety, parks and community programming that will continue to make our city stronger,” said Mayor Andrew J. Ginther.

The City’s Enterprise Zone Agreements, modeled in part from Ohio Revised Code stipulations, allows for a 75% attainment of the new job creation commitment to be considered to be compliant with the terms of the agreement. The Tax Incentive Review Council found that the 93 companies in receipt of Enterprise Zone and Community Reinvestment Area incentives in 2021:

• Retained 11,347 jobs – 119% of goal, up from 111% in 2020
• Invested $1.9 billion in real estate property improvements in 2021 – 110% of goal, up from 100% in 2020
• Created 4,943 net new jobs – 89% of goal, up from 58% in 2020
• Created $236 million in new payroll – 90% of goal, down from 147% in 2020

“Incentives are an important tool for creating jobs and opportunity in our city, and I’m pleased that the city’s portfolio of projects has resulted in greater community investment than projected,” said Columbus City Councilmember Emmanuel Remy,

“Through the TRIC, we’ll continue to ensure that recipients of these incentives act on their job creation commitments so that we continue to see improvements shown in the data.”

Notably, the 20 manufacturing and distribution companies in the incentive portfolio collectively created 1,198 new jobs (372% of goal) and $47.5 million in new payroll (454% of goal).  Reflecting broader trends, office projects lagged behind incentive commitments in 2021, with 27 projects from the real estate rental and leasing industry reaching 136% of committed real estate investment, but 98% of expected retained jobs and 35% of expected new jobs.

Following its review, the Review Council recommended that:

• 91 agreements be continued, having successfully delivered on their commitments, and of those 91:
• 60 with no need for staff follow-up beyond standard reporting.
• 31 recommended for staff follow-up, ranging from an advisement letter or a letter requesting action.
• Two agreements expired at the end of 2021, both of which were fully compliant with the terms of their agreements.

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