Ohio has Amazon, Facebook and IBM – 'all we're missing is Google,' Kasich says in pitch to tech giant

Gov. John Kasich says he's been courting Google about bringing jobs to Ohio, but as with Amazon, the state won't be "passing out sugar."

At a media scrum Friday with JobsOhio President and Chief Investment Officer John Minor, Kasich praised the private development entity set up early in his administration. Pending a few expected job deals, JobsOhio and its six regional development arms, including Columbus 2020, have landed incentives deals to create 17,000 jobs and retain another 47,000 this year.

"We're still very heavy on manufacturing, particularly advanced manufacturing. It's always been my goal to diversify us," Kasich said, citing health care, financial services, logistics and other industries to pursue. While the population growth has been sluggish in the state, he said the "cool factor" of the renovation of Ohio's biggest six cities is "in the right direction."

Noting Amazon's $1.1 billion trio of data centers in Central Ohio, the pending $750 million Facebook data center in New Albany and a new 300,000-square-foot high-tech Toledo axle production facility for Dana Inc., Kasich said Ohio needs to shift to a "knowledge economy" with technology jobs as a significant component.

And that includes Google. Kasich recently attended a Google conference in Arizona where he made the case for the company to invest here.

"I told them, we've got Amazon, we've got Facebook, we've got IBM Data Analytics, all we're missing is Google," Kasich said. "I think we're going to see movement on that front as well."

Pressed on the nature of the investment, Kasich said it's "too early to tell" but such an investment could entail "probably high paying" jobs.

"They've been around, they've been sniffing around the state, and I'm out there saying the time has come to make a decision," Kasich said. "I anticipate (Google parent Alphabet Inc. Chairman) Eric Schmidt is going to come here, we're going to have a big public event with him, probably some sort of a moderated panel between the two of us and what it means, but I'm optimistic we will ultimately have an investment from Google here."

Minor didn't elaborate. JobsOhio typically does not comment on projects in the pipeline or whether it has had conversations with a particular company.

But he referenced the recent applications by Ohio's major metros to land Amazon's HQ2, a new headquarters expected to bring $5 billion in investment and 50,000 jobs. Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati-Dayton were among 238 city bids for that project.

Kasich said Ohio has a leg up with its existing relationship with Amazon, which is projected to employ 10,000 in the state between its three Amazon Web Services data centers, three distribution centers in Central Ohio and three more centers planned around the state.

"We don't just want to be manufacturing. We also want to be a knowledge economy, we don't want to be thought of as a Rust Belt," Kasich said. "We have to give people skills, because the economy is changing and ... it requires almost a complete overhaul of our education system."

Minor declined to comment on the nature of incentives the state or JobsOhio have offered Amazon. The Cincinnati Business Courier estimated the city and state could offer $109 million in incentives annually if the tax deal is structured similarly to what was offered to GE for its huge investment on that city's riverfront.

"It's still very early in the process. The regions submitted their responses here and at the right time we'll certainly disclose what those credit and other forms of assistance are," Minor said.

But Kasich repeated his disdain for mega-deals between states and companies, as had been the case with Foxconn in Wisconsin.

"We're not just going to give stuff away to corporations, and if we give them something and they don't deliver we take it back. We don't buy a deal, that's sugar. That's passing out sugar," Kasich said.

"What I say is, if you want to come to Ohio, yeah we'll give you some incentives but we're not going to get into a bidding war with another state to get anything. We've got too much to offer. We have location, good business climate, we've got stability in our government. ... We're just not doing it. That's a bad way to do business."