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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OML E- BULLETIN
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General Assembly Begins Spring Break.

The Ohio General Assembly is now on spring break. There are no hearings and no sessions this week or next. Sessions will not be held until the second week of April in the Senate and the third week of April in the House, according to the published schedule.

Hanging over the break is the end of mediation efforts on school funding and a growing concern over the state budget. Despite a $1.5 billion package designed to shore up the balance in the state budget adopted in December, the state is now projecting an additional gap in the budget of up to $1.2 billion by the end of the biennium (June 30, 2003). With the end of mediation, school funding now goes back to the Supreme Court, which has already ruled once that the state ought to stick $1.2 billion additional into school funding to make the state's funding of education constitutional.

Left up in the air are many bills of municipal interest, including:

SB 247, which received its first hearing in the Senate just before break. Under provisions of that bill, members of PERS, STRS and SERS could opt to take a lump sum payment as part of their retirement package. SB 247 would allow a municipal retiree, for example, with a $3,000 a month pension benefit to opt at retirement to take a lump sum equal to six months ($3,000 x 6= $18,000), up to 36 months ($3,000 x 36 = $108,000) as part of their retirement benefit. Taking such an option would in turn reduce the retiree's's monthly check by a proportional amount. Someone taking $18,000 might have their monthly check reduced from $3,000 to $2,800, for example, while someone opting for a larger amount would have their check reduced somewhat more. HB 535, a companion bill, was also given its first hearing in the House Retirement and Aging committee.

HB 403, which is being heard in the House Commerce and Labor committee, was not voted out of the committee. The bill would impose a uniform building code on the entire state. Instead, a substitute version of the bill was introduced. The sub version of the bill does not change the goal of HB 403. The League sent a letter of opposition to this bill to members of the committee. That letter is available on the League's website (omunileague.org).

HB 191, which makes changes to the law governing MR/DD residential facilities passed the Senate. As introduced, the bill would have deleted from the law the requirement that the Department of MR/DD notify and ask for comment from municipal officials when such facilities are going to be put in the municipality. At the League's request, that deletion of notice was deleted from the bill

SB 184, the anti-terrorism bill, was passed out of both Houses and sent to the Governor. Under provisions of that bill, certain security-related documents are exempted from the Open Records law and certain security-related discussions are exempted from the Open Meetings Law. The League worked with the sponsor, the Ohio Newspaper Association and others to craft acceptable language on those exemptions.

HB 426, the eminent domain bill, was given a second hearing in the Senate State and Local Government and Veterans' Affairs Committee.

HB 329, which would change the Local Government Fund distribution formula in Columbiana, Clermont, Warren and Belmont counties, was held in that same Senate committee.

HB 258, the bill that would attempt to preempt all local regulations related to employee residency was held in the House Local Government and Townships committee, following another hearing on the bill.

HB 274, which allows Ohioans to carry concealed weapons under certain guidelines, passed out of the House by a 66-27 margin. The fate of that bill is uncertain in the Senate. The Governor is still promising a veto of any measure on this issue that passes without the support of the majority of law enforcement groups.

HB 501, which would carve out a niche in Ohio traffic laws for the "IT" transportation device ( a $3,000 electric, two-wheel scooter) moved out of the House State Government committee, despite some safety concerns raised by opponents during the last two hearings on the bill. The League is working with supporters of the bill to make sure municipalities have the ability to regulate these devices on sidewalks.

Special Thanks.

The final week of session prior to break was a good one for us in that we had great participation in the OML's Annual Legislative Luncheon at the Statehouse. We want to thank all the municipal officials who made the trip to Columbus for this day and all of the members of the General Assembly who shared lunch with us at this event. Over 320 municipal officials and legislators attended this event.