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No. 17 June 11, 1999 PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS & STAFF Senate Passes Budgets; Right-of-Way Language Included. This week the Ohio Senate passed its version of both the state operating budget (HB 283, $22.57 billion) and the state's education budget (HB 282, $17.09 billion). Despite strong differences on a limited number of issues, both bills were passed with bipartisan support, with HB 282 passing through the floor vote by a 31-2 margin and HB 283 receiving a 33-0 vote. Both biennial budgets are now expected to go to conference committees of the House and Senate to work out the differences between the two bodies. Those conference committees are expected to begin their work early next week. Conferees for HB 282 include: Rep. E.J. Thomas, Chair, Reps. Kerry Metzger and Ray Miller, Senators Roy Ray, Eric Fingerhut and Robert Gardner. Conferees for HB 283 include: Rep, E.J. Thomas, Chair, Reps. John Carey and Peter Lawson Jones and Senators Roy Ray, Eric Fingerhut, and Doug White. The League is still strongly concerned about a rider which was lodged and remains in the Senate version of HB 283 that would attempt to regulate and restrict a municipality's ability to control and finance the protection and maintenance of the public's right-of-ways from activities of utility companies. This rider is clearly unrelated to the budget and should stand the test of a public airing through the usual legislative process as a stand-alone piece of legislation. We will continue to work with both the House and the Senate during the conference process to see that the current language proposed by the Senate is not part of the final budget sent to the Governor by both houses. We need you to continue to let your House and Senate members know that this rider is not the way to deal with this important and complex issue. We also need you to get that same message across to your local media and representatives of those utilities who are and will continue to do business in your community that this "sub rosa" approach to dealing with what is essentially a local matter is not fair to anyone. OML Board Meets on Annexation Legislation. The League's Board of Trustees met in Columbus on Friday, June 4. Among the many items on the agenda was an update by the staff on progress made in developing with the Ohio Township Association a compromise version of changes to Ohio's annexation laws. Though the Board was supportive of many of the changes worked out between the staffs of both groups, there were a couple of important potential changes on the table to which the Board strenuously objected. At the Board's direction, the staff will meet with the OTA staff one final time this coming week to see what progress we might be make on these contentious issues. Municipal Income Tax and DeReg. With the expected coming of electric deregulation, investor-owned electric companies would no longer be regulated monopolies, but, in theory, much like other Ohio corporations. That would subject those companies to the municipal income tax, something which seems to scare the be-jeebies out of some electric company executives. Throughout the discussion of electric deregulation, the issue of how such a tax should be administered for this new, but we think slight, municipal revenue has hovered about. One member of the General Assembly, Rep. Don Mottley, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has taken up this issue and believes that, given the ubiquitous nature of electric sales and business activities, the municipal income tax for these new taxpayers ought to be handled in a different fashion. Specifically, Rep. Mottley was going to propose to the House Public Utilities Committee that SB 5, the electric DeReg vehicle, be amended to mandate the central collection of the municipal income tax by the state for deregulated electric utility companies. The League's position from the start is that the electric companies, like any other large, widespread company in Ohio, can handle the municipal income tax like any other large Ohio corporation, pay it locally. While there was obviously a large gap between the Chairman's view and that of the League, the fact that the electric companies will not really have to face the municipal income tax, under current timetables in SB 5, until the year 2002 gives the issue plenty of room for consideration outside of the DeReg bill, which is currently on a fast-track. In discussions of this matter with the League, Rep. Mottley agreed to offer an amendment to the DeReg bill, which if successfully considered will pass by July 1, that would state the legislature's intent to, if feasible, create a system to centralize municipal income tax collections for electric utilities by the time that collection kicks in. In turn, the issue would be taken up as part of the work of a task force of the League, the Ohio Society of CPA's and other business interests which is currently working on a municipal income tax reform bill. That bill, which is not yet introduced, stems from the far reaching changes proposed to the municipal income tax last session as HB 803. The work of the task force is not pegged to July 1 which will give us all more time to consider how and whether such a centralized collection system for this singular group of taxpayers is both valuable and practical. The League appreciates Rep. Mottley giving everyone a little more latitude on this important issue. 1999 Ohio Residential Water and Sewer Survey Thank you to all of the communities that participated in the 1999 Residential Water and Sewer Survey. We received responses from about 400 entities that included counties, cities, villages, and water and sewer districts. The survey results are being compiled in a comparative report that will be published later this summer. If you participated in the survey, copies of the final survey publication will be sent to your community following publication. Should you have any questions please contact DMG-MAXIMUS, Inc. at (614) 447-0288. COMMITTEE MEETING SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF JUNE 14MONDAY, JUNE 14 HOUSE PUBLIC UTILITIES, 11
a.m., Rm. 313 TUESDAY, JUNE 15 SENATE INSURANCE, COMMERCE & LABOR, 9 a.m., North Hearing Rm. HB 101 LABOR REQUIREMENTS (Young) Prohibits public authorities from imposing certain labor requirements as a condition of performing public works. (3rd Hearing) SENATE HIGHWAYS & TRANSPORTATION, After Session, North Hearing Rm. SB 137 PORT AUTHORITIES (Oelslager) Comprehensively revises the powers and duties of port authorities. (6th Hearing) HOUSE COMMERCE & LABOR, 7:15 p.m., Rm. 121 HB 286 DESIGN-BUILD (Coughlin) Permits public authorities to use design-build contractors in the construction of public improvements and establishes a two-phase procedure for selecting those contractors. (4th Hearing) HB 359 PUBLIC WORKS CONTRACTS (Krebs) Eliminates the general requirement that a public agency award separate contracts for each separate and distinct trade or kind of labor on a public works project and makes other changes. (1st Hearing) WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16 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. (10th Hearing) SENATE ENERGY, NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT, 10 a.m., South Hearing Rm., HB 197 SLUDGE DISPOSAL (Krebs) Authorizes the Director of Environmental Protection to issue permits for the use, storage, treatment, or disposal of sludge and sludge materials. (1st 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. (5th Hearing - Possible vote) HOUSE ETHICS & STANDARDS, 11 a.m., Rm. 113 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. (3rd Hearing - Possible vote) HOUSE LOCAL GOVERNMENT & TOWNSHIPS, 4 p.m., Rm. 121 HB 303 UNFUNDED MANDATES (Buchy) Creates the Local Government Mandates Commission. (4th Hearing - Possible vote) SENATE STATE & LOCAL GOVT. & VETERAN'S AFFAIRS, 4:30 p.m., South Hearing Rm. HB 91 TOWNSHIP PARTIONING (Terwilleger) Provides that a township reduced at the request of a municipal corporation to less than 22 square miles may continue as a reduced township unless a petition is filed by the township electors, to change the procedure for partitioning a township, and changes who may petition in a township to have the unincorporated township territory separated from the unincorporated township territory. (2nd Hearing) HB 189 MUNICIPAL POPULATION COUNT (Taylor) Excludes persons under detention in a detention facility from persons counted to determine the population of a municipal corporation for purposes of classifying the municipal corporation as a village or a city. (3rd Hearing) HB 40 CONTRACT PREFERENCE (Jolivette) Requires certain political subdivisions to provide a preference, under specified circumstances, when comparing bids for the awarding of public improvement contracts. (3rd Hearing) ****************************************************************************************** Municipal Bond Program In May some of you received a mailing explaining a proposed new program that the OML would like to make available to its members. Included with the explanation of the proposed financing program was a survey form. We encourage you to complete that form and return it to Seasongood & Mayer at your earliest convenience. The response to this and future surveys to other OML members will enable us to make a final determination on whether to proceed with this program. |
