Framework was part of the state budget, with funding to come from casinos

Job creation and retention is part of a regular mantra Gov. John Kasich has about his priorities for Ohio.

He often speaks about the need to make Ohio more business friendly, with fewer regulations and red tape from the government. During his campaign, he often pitched the need to improve job training programs to match the needs of business, and promised to create a voucher program to help do just that.

"How about vouchering out all the job training programs and giving it to the businesses, including small businesses, and letting them drive the curriculum at our technical schools and our community colleges so we begin to train people and retrain people for jobs that exist and those we think are going to come,” he said during an appearance at the City Club of Cleveland.

PolitiFact Ohio put the Kasich-O-Meter to work to check what progress the governor has made on his promise.

The voucher program was included in the budget plan for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 that was approved in June 2011 by the General Assembly and signed in to law by the governor. Rob Nichols, a spokesman for Kasich, pointed us to the language designating that $20 million be put toward Ohio Incumbent Workforce Training Vouchers for FY2012 and another $30 million for FY2013.

The legislation limits voucher amounts per worker at $6,000 per year.

The money to pay for the program will come from taxes on new casinos in the state. For that reason, the program won"t be up and running until the casinos open, Nichols said. Cleveland"s Horseshoe Casino is expected to open in March 2012.

In the meantime, rules for governing the program are being drawn up by the administration. Nichols said it is hoped that will be done before the end of November 2011.

Kasich has said, and Nichols reiterated, that businesses have complained of having trouble finding workers with the skills necessary to fill jobs that need filled. There could be as many as 80,000 such jobs in Ohio they have available, Nichols said.

There"s still work to do before this promise is fulfilled, but efforts are underway to establish the voucher program for job training. For now, we can point the Kasich-O-Meter for this promise at In the Works.