Budish says Cuyahoga County Investing in its People

Cuyahoga County is going beyond providing welfare for the poor and disabled.   County Executive Armond Budish says he wants to invest in local businesses, people and their innovations.   Ideastream’s Mark Urycki reports

In his State of the County address, Budish says the county is trying to prevent people from ending up on welfare by providing opportunities earlier. That’s as early as birth as the county is collaborating with Cleveland and others to reduce infant mortality. 

Then there’s the county’s investment in quality preschools.   Budish announced that they’ve been able to match the county’s $10 million with $12 million from private donations.

“That will enable us to more than double the number of three and four year old children below 300% of poverty attending our high quality pre-k program, from 2000 to over 4000 kids, and we’ll sustain those numbers through July 2020." 

Budish says the county is also investing in local entrepreneurs through small business loans that banks might not bother with.  He says they’ve helped create 60 businesses in one year and more than half were female-owned and 40% were minority-owned businesses. 

He said the county has also helped raise about $40 million for investments in startup tech or biomedical companies.

The county and the Mt. Sinai Foundation are creating the Rising Star Awards that will be given to three new local health care companies.

“With the winners receiving not only a cash prize to support their startup business, but also space in the global center and mentorship from global center partners.  There is real power in health innovators coming together in a terrific space," Budish said.

He called the awards “one of the largest new business plan competitions in the country.” 

Click here to watch the entire State of the County address.

Mark.Urycki@ideastream.org