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

For email inquiries to the OML, it would be most helpful if you would include your name, position, city or village you represent. 

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.

OML E- BULLETIN
If you would like to sign up for the E-Bulletin, send an email here: info@omunileague.org
 In the e-mail, indicate that you would like to be taken off the paper Bulletin list.

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS & STAFF

Taft Budget Would Cost Local Governments Nearly $200 Million.

In order to fund its proposed increases to schools and other state spending, the Taft administration is sending to the General Assembly a budget that will freeze growth to the Local Government Fund, The Local Government Revenue Assistance Fund and the Library and Local Government Support Fund.

Through this unprecedented reduction in concern about local government, the Taft administration hopes to save money equal to about 25% of the administration's new school funding proposal. The cost to libraries, municipalities, counties and townships is estimated at $190 million over the biennium. This would level all the local government funds at $2.6 billion over the biennium, as opposed to the $2.8 billion that would have occurred without the freeze. All estimates are estimates made by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management. Should those estimates prove to be low, the cut in support for local government and libraries will be even greater.

LGF and other local government funds are never a set amount of state dollars, but funds which derive their growth or decline based on a percentage of certain state taxes. If those taxes grow in good times, the funds go up. If the taxes decline, the funds decline. This proposal takes away that percentage basis and arbitrarily pegs FY 2002 and FY 2003 local government support to the dollars produced in FY 2001.

This cap comes at a time in which revenues for many local governments are also slowing or declining and as many expenditures, such as the huge gap in resources to pay for many needed infrastructure problems, are growing. If the nation is creeping toward zero or negative economic growth, you can be sure that many Ohio communities are already experiencing that negative economic growth. Despite many hard times in Ohio, we know of no other time since the inception of the LGF in the 1930's that this betrayal of a commitment to local government has been used.

Should the General Assembly agree with Governor Taft on this issue, not only will this loss of funds hurt many essential municipal and other local government services, but it will inject this havoc in the middle of local government's budget year. When the state adopts its budget by June 30, local governments will already be in the middle of one calendar year budget, but will also have finished their certification of the 2002 calendar budget.

We need your help in fighting this reduced concern for local government by the Taft Administration. Please, write or call Governor Taft (614-466-3555) and tell him of your opposition to this freeze. Also, please, call your local representative and senator and tell him or her what this lack of growth in the LGF and LGRAF will mean in real terms to your community. Finally, we would ask you to write to Representative John Carey, Chair of the House Finance Committee, Senator Doug White, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Representative Larry Householder, Speaker of the Ohio House, and Senator Richard Finan, President of the Ohio Senate, to oppose this portion of the Governor's proposed budget. The Governor's and all House member letters should be addressed to them at 77 S. High St., Columbus, 43216. Senate member letters should be sent to the Ohio Statehouse, Columbus, 43215.

With your help, we can make it clear that the problems of local government cannot be frozen for two years.

Annexation Bill May Be Introduced Soon.

It is expected that a new annexation bill will be introduced into this session of the General Assembly within the next week or two. We believe that bill will be the same one as passed by the Ohio Senate last session, with the inclusion of the small number of amendments that were adopted by the House Local Governments and Townships Committee, prior to that committee's referral of the bill to the House Rules Committee.

It is expected that Senator Lynn Wachtmann will introduce that bill in the Senate. It is expected that that bill will be the vehicle, though a companion bill will be introduced in the Ohio House.