To create a pilot program in the Department of Development to provide technical assistance to eligible businesses and to make an appropriation.

Section 1.  (A) As used in this section:

(1) "Eligible business" means a for-profit business association that has at least six employees but not more than ninety-nine employees and that has maintained its principal place of business in the state for at least a two-year period ending on the date the business applies for assistance under this section. The business must generate at least seven hundred fifty thousand dollars but not more than twenty-five million dollars in annual revenue and must have increased both its number of full-time equivalent employees in this state and its gross revenue during at least three of the five years preceding the date of application.

(2) "Full-time equivalent employee" means the quotient obtained by dividing the total number of hours for which an eligible business employs employees during a year by two thousand eighty.

(B) There is hereby created in the department of development the economic gardening technical assistance pilot program. The director of development may contract with or coordinate one or more persons to aid in the administration and operation of the program.

The director shall provide technical assistance to eligible businesses, including, but not limited to, access to information and market intelligence services, including information on markets, customers, and competitors, such as business databases, geographic information systems, search engine marketing, and business connection development encouraging interaction and exchange among business owners and resource providers such as trade associations, academic institutions, business advocacy organizations, peer-based learning sessions, and mentoring programs. The director, through the program, is authorized to promote the general business and industrial interests of the state.

(C)(1) The director, in selecting eligible businesses to assist, shall select businesses in more than one industry classification and, to the extent practicable, shall choose businesses that are geographically distributed throughout the state.

(2) A business receiving assistance under the program must enter into an agreement with the director to establish the business's commitment to participate in the program. The agreement must require, at a minimum, that the business do all of the following:

(a) Attend the number of meetings between the business and the director or another person designated by the director as prescribed in the agreement;

(b) Report job creation data in the manner prescribed by the director;

(c) Provide financial data in the manner prescribed by the director.

The director may prescribe in the agreement additional reporting requirements as are necessary to document the progress of the business and monitor the business's implementation of the assistance.

(D) On or before one year after the effective date of ....B. .... of the 129th General Assembly, the director of development shall make available on the department of development's web site a report that includes, at a minimum, the number of businesses receiving assistance under this section, the number of full-time equivalent employees created as a result of the assistance, the total amount of compensation paid for such employees, and the locations and types of business conducted by the businesses. The report shall also evaluate the effectiveness of the economic gardening technical assistance pilot program and recommend any changes to be made to the program. The report shall be submitted to the governor, the speaker and minority leader of the house of representatives, and the majority leader and minority leader of the senate.

(E) The director of development shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code that are necessary for the administration of the economic gardening technical assistance pilot program.

Section 2.  Section 1 of ....B. .... of the 129th General Assembly is hereby repealed, effective two years after the effective date of ....B. .... of the 129th General Assembly.

Section 3.  All items in this section are hereby appropriated as designated out of any moneys in the state treasury to the credit of the General Revenue Fund. For all appropriations made in this act, those in the first column are for fiscal year 2012 and those in the second column are for fiscal year 2013. The appropriations made in this act are in addition to any other appropriations made for the FY 2012-FY 2013 biennium.

Appropriations

General Revenue Fund

ECONOMIC GARDENING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PILOT PROGRAM

The foregoing appropriation item 195530, Economic Gardening Pilot Program, shall be used for the Economic Gardening Technical Assistance Pilot Program established in section 122.97 of the Revised Code.

Within the limits set forth in this act, the Director of Budget and Management shall establish accounts indicating the source and amount of funds for each appropriation made in this act, and shall determine the form and manner in which appropriation accounts shall be maintained. Expenditures from appropriations contained in this act shall be accounted for as though made in Am. Sub. H.B. 153 of the 129th General Assembly.

The appropriations made in this act are subject to all provisions of Am. Sub. H.B. 153 of the 129th General Assembly that are generally applicable to such appropriations.

Section 4. Sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this act are not subject to the referendum under Ohio Constitution, Article II, Section 1d, and section 1.471 of the Revised Code, and therefore those sections take effect immediately when this act becomes law.