TAFT ADDS SUPPORT TO NASA GLENN RESEARCH BID FOR SHARED SERVICES FACILITY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 17, 2004

Columbus, OH -- Governor Bob Taft today voiced his strong support for a NASA Shared Services Center in Brook Park during a meeting with NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe in Cleveland.

"The NASA Glenn Research Center is a world-class research facility, and we are committed to doing all we can to help it prosper and succeed here in Northeast Ohio,” Taft said. “We are working with local leaders and our congressional delegation to bring this project and its more than 400 good jobs to Ohio.”

NASA Glenn is in competition with NASA facilities nationwide for a shared services facility to provide consolidated and more cost-effective business services to the agency. The Center is expected to retain 50 full time positions and create more than 400 new positions, primarily in the human resources field. The new positions will be include more than 100 federal jobs with an average annual salary of $65,000, and more than 300 contracted jobs with an average annual salary of more than $30,000.

“The new center offers the type of high paying jobs we are pursuing as part of my jobs agenda,” said Taft. “That is why we went the extra mile to support and strengthen the package of incentives which the city had developed to attract the Shared Services Center.”

The Ohio Department of Development has been working with Brook Park officials to develop a competitive incentive package. “While details have not been finalized, we are working with local officials to offset the cost of a new facility to house the shared services functions,” said State Development Director Bruce Johnson. Johnson also serves as head of Governor Taft’s Jobs Cabinet, created to help bring good jobs to Ohio.