|
|
|
Ohio Municipal League email:
Also please include a phone number and/or address for instances when we need
further contact with you. Please type
“OML Inquiry” in subject line so that we can identify e-mails picked up as spam. |
No. 9 April 16, 1999 PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS & STAFF Cable TV Bill Shifts Gears in Senate. A second opponent hearing on SB 67, which would create obstacles for municipal entry in the cable TV business, was cancelled and the legislative process took a new tack following testimony given in opposition to the bill last week. The Chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Senator Lou Blessing asked all the interested parties to consider negotiations among the parties on the bill in lieu of further public testimony on the bill. The League, along with parties on both sides of the issue, agreed that such discussions might prove useful. Further testimony and hearings were thus put off until a later date. We will keep you informed on the progress of this bill and any developments that might occur stemming from discussions between the proponents and opponents to the bill. There will be a hearing on HB 188, the companion bill to SB 67, in the House Public Utilities Committee on Wednesday (see Committee Schedule). That hearing is for proponents of the bill. EPA Budget Heard Last week, a House subcommittee of the House Finance Committee began its consideration of the Ohio EPA's Budget. There are few changes in that budget that directly impact on municipal budgets. The exception to that is an increase in NPDES fees that would be paid on an annual basis to the OEPA by those municipalities operating wastewater treatment plants. Though those fees as proposed would be increased, on average, by 19%, the fees have remained constant since they were established by the 1993 budget. For the smallest NPDES, the fee would increase from $180 to $200 a year each of the next two years. For the largest public NPDES, the increase in the fee would be from $54,000 to $62,000 a year. We have been and will continue to discuss these increases with the OEPA and with a broad sampling of municipalities to assess the impact and the usefulness of these increases. Anti-Residency Bill Still Alive. Though SB 46, the bill that would attempt to have the General Assembly decide residency requirements for municipal employees, has been pulled from the agenda of the Senate State and Local Government and Veterans' Affairs for now, we believe the bill is still very much alive in the legislative process. It is important that you let your local legislators know of your concerns about this bill as soon as possible. Many of these local residency requirements have been established by your local voters, who chose to put such requirements in your charter. Others have established such requirements through ordinances passed by local elected officials. This bill would second guess both of those judgments and replace it with the judgment of the General Assembly. While such actions are always grating to municipal officials, this particular bill goes beyond a disagreement between municipal and state officials about how municipalities ought to be run. In this case, the legislature, should it pass this bill, would simply veto the judgment of local voters who chose to put residency requirements in their charter. What next? Perhaps a decision by the General Assembly that all municipal voters should have the right to vote on the city or villages CEO, thus eliminating the City Manager and Village Administrator forms of government. Or perhaps the legislature will decide that every city ought to have at least some ward council seats and ban city councils, established by charter, which only have councilmembers elected at large. Or perhaps the legislature will decide at some future date that all charters ought to establish municipal governments that have just the opposite outcome, with all cities and villages having appointed CEO's and only at-large councilmembers. Establishing such intrusive schemes as appropriate legislation through the passage of SB 46 is not something that will prove to be good either for municipal government or the state legislature. INTERESTING, INTERESTING, INTERESTING According to the Court of Claims in their testimony on the state budget, only about $10.8 million or 52% of the "Victims of Crime Program" $20.7 million FY 1998 budget was paid in claims to victims. About 25% went to court of claims administrative costs, including: $2.175 million to compensate court of claims personnel; $837,399 for administration; $277,540 to compensate commissioners who hear appeals; and $13,594 to compensate judges. The victims of crime program receives funding through a state mandated court cost of $30 for felonies or $9 for misdemeanors in Mayors, Municipal, County and other courts. DO YOU SEEM TO BE HEARING TRAINS MORE? When Congress passed the Swift Rail Development Act in 1994, it directed the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) to issue a rule mandating the use of train horns at all public crossings. This legislation, as amended in 1996, allowed for exceptions, however, whenever communities established alternatives that provide the same level of safety at crossings as that provided by train horns. Some of the alternatives under consideration include: 1) permanently closing highway-rail crossings; 2) closing crossings to highway and pedestrian traffic during ban (nighttime) hours; 3) installing sufficient gates at crossings to fully block highway traffic from entering when the gates are lowered; 4) installing median barriers at crossings to prevent highway traffic from driving around gates; 5) making adjacent streets into one-way pairs, while modifying and/or relocating existing gates to completely block approaching lanes of traffic; 6) installing cameras at crossings to assist in enforcing state traffic laws. Additional alternatives may be identified, and communities may develop and propose their own safety countermeasures. The FRA is working with affected communities on these and other potential options that will satisfy the requirement mandated by Congress. FRA anticipates publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)–along with an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)–in the Federal Register early this year, then will hold public hearings on both documents around the nation, thereby providing communities with an opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process before the final rule is issued. The dates and locations for the public hearings will be announced in the NPRM. However, written comments received in advance of the hearings will be placed in a FRA Docket Number RSGC-7, and considered during the development of the NPRM and the EIS. Mr. Donald Thomas, The FRA Manager for Highway-Rail Crossing Safety and Trespass Prevention Programs for Ohio, can provide additional information. M. Thomas may be reached at (610) 521-8212. Also, Federal funding is available to assist communities in implementing grade crossing safety improvements. Each state is responsible for deciding which crossings will be enhanced or closed permanently. Since 1972, the states have obligated more than $3 billion in federal grade crossing safety funds for more than 30,000 projects. The funding has helped save 10,000 lives and prevent 40,000 injuries. The State of Ohio was allocated $23 million for 1999, of which $6 million is specifically earmarked for crossing safety improvements, and the remainder is available for similar improvements at the discretion of the state. You are encouraged to comment on this issue. COMMITTEE MEETING SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF APRIL 19, 1999 TUESDAY, APRIL 20 SENATE WAYS & MEANS, After Session, South Hearing Rm. SB 108 ESTATE TAX (Latta) Reduces the estate tax by 36% over five years and phases out the share of the estate tax paid to the state. (1st Hearing) SB 3 ELECTRIC DEREGULATION (Johnson) Declares that the public policy of the State of Ohio is to effect the restructuring of the electric industry pursuant to specified goals permitting effective competition in the provision of retail electric service to all Ohio consumers. (4th Hearing - market power issues) WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21 SENATE JUDICIARY, 9 a.m., North Hearing Rm. HB 58 DECLARATORY JUDGMENTS (Womer Benjamin) Prohibits an award of attorney's fees under the Declaratory Judgments Law unless a statute expressly authorizes the award in connection with a particular type of declaratory relief action or proceeding. (1st Hearing) SB 78 PUBLIC RECORDS (Oelslager) Generally grants members of the public the option of choosing the medium in which they will receive copies of public records and requires a public office to transmit copies of a public record through the United States mail if so requested. (2nd Hearing) HOUSE HEALTH, RETIREMENT & AGING, 10 a.m., Rm. 017 HB 199 ALTERNATIVE PUBLIC PENSION (Cates) Creates an alternative retirement program for public employees covered by Ohio's state retirement systems. (4th Hearing) HOUSE CIVIL & COMMERCIAL LAW, 10:30 a.m., Rm. 121 HB 295 Y2K LIABILITY IMMUNITY(Terwilleger) Provides immunity from liability to the state and to political subdivisions from harm relating to the Year 2000 computer problem. (1st Hearing) HB 95 PUBLIC RECORDS (Terwilleger) Awards reasonable expenses to the relator if a writ of mandamus is issued in a taxpayer's suit and authorizes a similar award plus court costs to a prevailing aggrieved person in a mandamus action under the Public Records Law. (4th Hearing - Possible vote) SENATE PENSIONS SYSTEMS SUBCOMMITTEE, 11:15 a.m., Rm. 110 SB 93 LAW ENFORCEMENT RETIREMENT (Watts) Permits members of the Public Employees Retirement System Law Enforcement Division with at least 25 years of total service credit to retire at age 48 with full benefits. (1st Hearing) SB 118 PFDPF BENEFITS (Blessing) Increases benefits paid to surviving spouses of members of the Police and Firemen's Disability and Pension Fund (PFDPF) and makes other changes. (1st Hearing) SB 114 MILITARY SERVICE CREDIT (Furney) Requires PFDPF to recalculate the cost of military service credit for certain members of the Fund whose purchase of the credit was based on calculations made between the introduction date of Am. Sub. HB450 of the 121st General Assembly and the act's effective date. (1st Hearing) HOUSE PUBLIC UTILITIES, After session, Rm. 017 HB 188 CABLE TELEVISION (Olman) Provides for fair competition in the provision of cable television services by establishing conditions under which governmental cable operators may be formed, including the franchising of those operators by the Public Utilities Commission, and by taxing such operators in the manner of private cable operators. (3rd Hearing) HB 5 ELECTRIC DEREGULATION (Mead) Declares that the public policy of the State of Ohio is to effect the restructuring of the electric industry pursuant to specified goals permitting effective competition in the provision of retail electric service to all Ohio consumers. (5th Hearing - labor, energy efficiency, and environment issues) HOUSE LOCAL GOVERNMENT & TOWNSHIPS, 4 p.m., Rm. 121 HB 267 FARMLAND PRESERVATION (Krebs) Requires the Director of Agriculture to be notified when land in an agricultural security area is to be appropriated by eminent domain and makes other changes. (1st Hearing) SB 31 PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEES (Latta) Requires the appointing authorities that appoint members of district public works integrating committees to appoint alternates for those members to act in their absence. (2nd Hearing) THURSDAY, APRIL 22 HOUSE HEALTH, RETIREMENT & AGING SUB. RETIREMENT, 9 a.m., Rm. 116 HB 275 PFDPF BENEFITS (Vesper) Increases benefits paid to surviving spouses of members of the Police & Firemen's Disability & Pension Fund; eliminates the cost-of-living allowances that apply to certain PFDPF members and declares an emergency. (1st Hearing) SENATE WAYS & MEANS, 9 a.m., North Hearing Rm. SB 3 ELECTRIC DEREGULATION (Johnson) Declares that the public policy of the State of Ohio is to effect the restructuring of the electric industry pursuant to specified goals permitting effective competition in the provision of retail electric service to all Ohio consumers. (5th Hearing - tax issues) HOUSE WAYS & MEANS, 10 a.m., Rm. 121 HB 260 SPONGE TAX (Tiberi) Adopts a sponge tax as the estate tax. (1st Hearing) SB 6 HOMESTEAD ELIGIBILITY (Armbruster) Increases the maximum income limit used to determine eligibility for the homestead exemption and indexes to inflation the income brackets used to determine the amount of a homesteader's tax reduction. (2nd Hearing - Accept subcommittee report - Possible Vote) HB 76 LOCAL DEBT LIMIT (Brading) Exempts from the calculation of a subdivision's debt limit a specified portion of the principal amount of securities issued for permanent improvements if payments in lieu of taxes are pledged to repay those securities. (3rd Hearing - Possible vote) |
