ECONOMY
Auditor Dave Yost, a Republican who continues to push for his office to be allowed to audit JobsOhio, said, “They are required to report total compensation, so they ought to do that ... Honestly, I really don’t think they are hiding a huge amount of compensation on the nontaxable side, but we don’t know. The point is, we should not have to guess.”
State Rep. David Leland, D-Columbus, a critic of JobsOhio’s performance, also objects to the lack of disclosure on salaries. “They are not being forthcoming. People should err on the side of giving more information, not less, particularly when we’re talking about public dollars — or dollars that used to be public dollars,” he said. “What are they trying to hide?”
The practice understates employee earnings by thousands of dollars each.
For example, the filing for 2017 shows that John Minor Jr., JobsOhio’s president and chief executive officer, received a raise of $32,256, or 7 percent, last year to $516,458.
Yet, his actual compensation probably is significantly higher. JobsOhio’s 2016 state filing, for example, showed that Minor received $484,203 in taxable income, while the nonprofit’s federal tax filing later placed his total compensation at $528,945.
Salary reporting works differently in the public sector: State law requires the Department of Administrative Services to publicly report the names and gross salaries of state employees. The IRS also requires nonprofits such as JobsOhio to report pay directed by executives to retirement accounts.
Overall, JobsOhio’s salaries and benefits increased last year by $2.3 million, or 13 percent, to an average of nearly $142,000 per employee as its staff increased by eight, to 81 employees.
Of the 34 employees earning more than $100,000 last year even without the full accounting of their compensation, nine received more than $200,000. Three managing directors were paid $225,374 to $249,532, while three senior managing directors earned $258,292 to $305,530.
It’s difficult to calculate who earned what because only positions — not names — are listed. The salary of the best-paid senior managing director increased by $5,197, or 2 percent.
The Dispatch first disclosed in 2015 that JobsOhio reported employees’ taxable income rather than total compensation in 2014. The nonprofit then reported total compensation for 2015 before returning in subsequent years to a report listing only taxable income.
The reporting of taxable — rather than gross — income “best represents dollars actually spent. For instance, prior reporting (before 2014) would list compensation for the entire year for a position that could have been vacant for most of the year,” said JobsOhio spokesman Matthew Englehart. He declined to comment on how underreporting salaries “best represents” actual spending.
He said the nonprofit uses compensation studies by consultants to “determine the appropriate compensation levels for its associates,” adding that JobsOhio’ salaries are “comparable to that paid to employees of other private, nonprofit organizations.” Englehart declined to identify nonprofits considered comparable.
JobsOhio’s annual filings with the Development Services Agency also showed that it spent $41,033 for Gov. John Kasich and some of his staff to join the nonprofit for a trade trip to Munich, Germany, and London last year. JobsOhio also spent $26,928 for travel by Kasich and staff members for a five-day trade trip to Japan.
JobsOhio reported earlier this month that it created 22,788 jobs last year, an increase of 11 percent over 2016, with a record-matching $1.1 billion in payroll for an average of about $48,300 per position. However, revised overall employment numbers show that the state gained but 12,500 jobs last year, the fewest since 2010. The nonprofit reported creating 5,137 jobs in the Columbus area.
The agency, which awards loans and grants while the state provides tax breaks, also said its work saved 67,849 jobs.
The 272 total projects were accompanied by a record $9.6 billion in capital investment by new or expanding companies.
JobsOhio, which took over the duties of the former Department of Development in 2011, is funded largely by its $1.5 billion, 25-year lease of state liquor operations, which produced a profit of $110 million on record revenue of $1.15 billion.