There is some evidence from recently announced corporate investments that Ohio may already be on its way back.
      On Feb. 1, Boeing announced plans to move an aircraft-guidance center from Texas to Heath in Licking County after state officials said they would provide more than $2 million in incentives.
      Boeing will move 35 jobs from suburban Dallas to its 775,000-sq.-ft. (71,998-sq.-m.) Heath operation in the Central Ohio Aerospace and Technology Center, formerly known as the Newark Air Force Base. Boeing already has about 600 workers at the center, which does work on navigation and guidance systems for the U.S. Armed Forces.
      Boeing, which is investing about $4.2 million in the expansion project, was swayed by several factors: the willingness of skilled workers to relocate to Heath; an ability to duplicate the one-of-a-kind anechoic chamber in Texas; and the incentives package prepared by the state, local government and the Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority.
      In Defiance in Northwest Ohio, Johns Manville, a manufacturer of fiberglass materials, announced in January that it will invest $100 million by building a pipe insulation factory. The plant will be incorporated into one of JM's three Defiance area locations: Plant 8, a 600,000-sq.-ft. (55,740-sq.-m.) facility on Carpenter Road. An extra 100,000 sq. ft. (9,290 sq. m.) will be added.
      The new factory will be a high-tech operation financed by the Berkshire Hathaway company. The fully automated facility will enable JM to produce Micro-Lok fiberglass pipe insulation in a range of diameters and thicknesses, using the rotary fiberization and mandrel-wound pipe-forming processes.
      Boeing and JM represent exactly the kind of high-tech jobs Ohio covets. The state's Third Frontier Project is designed to seed and lure high-wage technology companies.
      "Our Third Frontier Project is already getting results," Gov. Taft told lawmakers in February. "Our progress is being recognized nationally. The Milken Institute reported that Ohio leads the nation in the increase in venture capital invested in biomedical companies, citing Third Frontier as playing a 'pivotal role.' "
      The governor reported several recent successes: "We've helped attract federal funds for Cleveland's Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, the Fuel Cell Prototyping Center in Canton and a center for alternative energy in Toledo. Private sector support is helping scientists find cures for disease at the Genome Research Institute in Cincinnati, develop new data management products in Dayton and design jet engines in Columbus."
      Companies from the West Coast are taking notice. Alien Technologies, a California firm, "is building a new R&D center here because of the attractive business climate being created by the Third Frontier Project."
      Unveiled by Taft in 2002, Third Frontier is a 10-year, $1.1-billion initiative to expand high-tech research, promote innovation, encourage company formation and create high-wage jobs. It is the state's largest ever technology-based economic development investment, awarding more than $235 million to date to Ohio-based companies, universities and research organizations.