Ohio House Republicans are pushing a package of 10 bills -- including tax credits, regulatory changes and reductions in the estate tax -- that they say will create jobs and help industry grow in the state.

Rep. Cheryl Grossman, R-Grove City, said she is frustrated that the House Economic Development Committee has met just four times for a total of two hours since January and has passed only a single resolution.

"In my opinion, economic development is how we fix the programs, fix the budget, fix education and a lot of the other things in Ohio," she said at a Statehouse news conference.

Among other things, the Republican-sponsored bills would offer $2,400 in tax credits to businesses that hire Ohioans who are currently unemployed, create a low-interest capital loan for business, and analyze why companies have left Ohio.

"Part of our focus is on smaller business," said Robert Hackett, R-London. "Tax reform that started a couple years ago has made us more competitive. But we're doing it on the backs of small businesses. They are struggling very harshly in these times."

Rep. Sandra Williams, a Cleveland Democrat and chairwoman of the Economic Development Committee, said she doesn't understand the criticism because the only the piece of legislation assigned to her committee this year was passed. She said a number of GOP committee members didn't attend hearings that were held.

Williams added that Republicans ran state government for 14 years and didn't address these issues.

"This is just a ploy for them to get some type of attention," she said. "So far, they haven't done anything except wait around and see what we're going to do. I would tell them to show up and bring some ideas to the table."

Some of the bills, particularly those involving tax credits, come with a price. Supporters are not yet saying how the state would pay for the proposals, considering the dire budget situation.

"That's why we're going to have committee hearings, to vet out all of these proposals," Grossman said. "But on a lot of them, it's a very minor investment with a major payback."

jsiegel@dispatch.com