Richard Cordray Touts Small Business Plans, Says He Wouldn't Scrap JobsOhio

Democratic nominee for Ohio governor Richard Cordray visited a manufacturing site in Cleveland on Tuesday and talked about his small business plans.  

Cordray met with business leaders for a closed-to-press session at Magnet, a manufacturing incubator that receives state and federal funding.

The former federal consumer protection chief then toured the facility on the eastern edge of downtown. Founders of some of Magnet’s startups showed off their products. Cordray handled lightweight “smart mulch,” inspected adaptive clothing for seniors and sampled Cleveland Whiskey.

Cordray’s campaign proposes hiring a small business chief to help companies with permits and low-interest loans.

In a brief interview after the tour, Cordray said he wouldn’t scrap JobsOhio, the economic development nonprofit created under Republican Gov. John Kasich. But he said he might “shift some direction on it.”

“We can take JobsOhio and we can focus it, some of it, more on small business in the state,” Cordray said. “And we don’t have to solely be about throwing money at big companies from outside the state coming here and then undercutting the businesses that are already doing the right things here in Ohio.”

Some Democrats last year proposed rolling back Kasich’s small business tax cut, which allows a 100 percent deduction on the $250,000 of business income.

Asked his position on the tax cut, Cordray said, “I think we need to know more about what the actual effect is, in terms of whether it’s creating jobs or not creating jobs. And for me, the jury’s out on that still.”

Meanwhile, the campaign of Republican nominee Mike DeWine says he will receive a “major endorsement” at a union hall in Richfield on Wednesday.