Ohio Municipal League
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Suite 510
Columbus, Ohio 43215

614-221-4349 Office
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Legislative Inquiries
John Mahoney
General Inquiries
info@omunileague.org

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

State Government, Like Everyone Else, Stunned by National Tragedy.

A meeting of the Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee got under way shortly after 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 11. After a brief testimonial scuffle on the relative merits of the prevailing wage, the committee adjourned and the rest of the General Assembly=s committee schedule for the week was canceled. The tragedies in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, with their pictures of mass murder and talk of war, put State Government, and much of the nation, on hold. The issues that seemed major and urgent a few days before, no longer seemed to important. The House canceled all activities, while the Senate held a routine session on Wednesday. The Governor organized a prayer service to remember the victims in the Statehouse Atrium.

Leadership and the Governor met late in the week to discuss with the Attorney General whether the state should ask for reconsideration from the Supreme Court on the court=s decision on school funding. Those meetings were expected to last through the weekend. The deadline for that motion is Monday at 5:00 p.m. This week the Coalition on Equity and Adequacy of Funding, the school group suing the state for more school funds, agreed with the leaders of the General Assembly that the cost of complying with the Court=s last ruling was $1.2 billion per year or $2.4 billion for this biennial budget. Earlier, that group, the Court and other school groups had estimated the cost of the Court=s order would be $400 million to $600 million per year. Aside from that news, the Statehouse was just as filled with sadness, shock and anger as the rest of the nation.

New Telephone Rules Raise Concerns.

The Ohio Consumers= Counsel, along with a number of our member municipalities, are opposing a PUCO Staff proposal that allows telephone companies to raise rates on certain commonly used telephone services (e.g. Caller ID and Call Waiting). The PUCO is currently asking for comments on these proposals. You can get more information on this case (00-1532-TP-COI) at the Consumers= Counsel=s website: www.pickocc.org The rules and the Consumers= Counsel=s fact sheet on the rules can be accessed in the featured links section on the front page of that site.

COMMITTEE MEETING SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 17, 2001

The two bills of League interest that are up for testimony this week: HB 6 TAX INCREMENT FINANCING (Hollister) Establishes the Capital Access Program in the Department of Development and permits political subdivisions in economically distressed areas to employ tax increment financing throughout a designated area. The bill is scheduled for hearings on September 18 at 1:30 p.m., September 19 at 9:00 a.m. and September 20 at 9:00 a.m. All three hearings will be in Room 113.