Ohio Municipal League
175 South Third Street
Suite 510
Columbus, Ohio 43215

614-221-4349 Office
614-221-4390 Fax

email:
Legislative Inquiries
John Mahoney
General Inquiries
info@omunileague.org

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Income Tax Bill Passes House.

With some of the controversy surrounding HB 477 deflated by the passage of an amendment that deleted the Medicare base for withholding, the bill designed to add more uniformity to the municipal income tax passed the House this week with only one dissenting vote. As noted before and in our letter to House members, we are supportive of the bill, but will be seeking some additional amendments to the bill in the Ohio Senate.

League Meets on Annexation with Senate Leaders.

League staff met this week with Senators Robert Cupp and Bruce Johnson to discuss progress made and disagreements still pending on annexation legislation between the League and the Ohio Township Association. Both legislators have been key members in the ongoing attempt to come to some resolution on this issue. Representatives of the Ohio Township Association and the County Commissioners Association of Ohio were also participants in this meeting.

We and OTA both made our case for our points of views on our disagreements and outlined the substantial points of agreement between the two sides. We now will wait to consider any suggested compromises on the points of disagreement that may come from Senators Cupp and Johnson.

Despite our reporting that a substitute bill on HB 483 would be released and heard in the House Ways and Means Committee, it didn't happen. That's because it is supposed to happen this coming week, which it will when the House Ways and Means Committee meets on Wednesday, January 19 at 3:30 p.m. in Room 018. HB 483 creates a system of state centralized collection of municipal net profits taxes for electric utility companies when those companies become eligible for those taxes under electric deregulation. The League is opposed to the centralized collection of municipal income taxes. Opposition testimony on this bill is scheduled for Wednesday, January 26. Please, let us know if you wish to testify against this legislation.

There will also be a first hearing (sponsor only) on HB 539, which exempts from public records information pertaining to a person under 18 seeking to use community recreational facilities. That hearing will be on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. in House Hearing Room 113.

The House version of "The Protect the Small Cable Companies (e.g. Time-Warner/AOL) from Huge Municipal Cable Competitors (e.g. Bryan, Ohio)," HB 188 will be up for a hearing in the House Public Utility Committee at 3 p.m. on Wednesday in House Hearing Room 188.