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OML LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN No. 12 April 10, 2003 PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS &
STAFF Late Wednesday night, the Ohio House passed its version of the budget on a vote of 53-46. In order to balance the budget with fewer tax increases than proposed by the administration, the House offered less aid to education, made cuts in many state departments and temporarily raised a slightly-expanded sales tax. Through a floor amendment, the House proposed placing on the November ballot the question of placing 14,000 Video Lottery Terminals (VLT’s) in Ohio’s racetracks. That question would pit those VLT’s against the sales tax increase. Should the voters choose VLT’s, the sales tax would expire early. If the voters oppose the VLT’s the sales tax increase would remain until the end of this coming biennium. The sales tax produces at least $1.2 billion in revenue. The VLT’s at full implementation are expected to produce $500 million in annual revenues for the state. The Governor has threatened to veto the ballot language related to VLT’s and its fate in the Senate is uncertain. Changes made in the House version of the budget freezes all local government funds at their current biennial level in the new biennium, which begins July 1. The Governor’s budget would have allowed for 2% growth in those funds in each year of the biennium. Under the Governor’s proposal, local governments and libraries would have been allocated $53 million more than the House version will produce, if the state’s revenue projections for the 24 months of the new biennium are correct. Of course, the final House version is a far cry from the 60% reduction in local government funds that was under consideration at one point in the House deliberations. We are very appreciative of those House members who pushed against this option and to the leadership of the House for choosing not to follow this course. And to all those municipal officials who made their feelings known on this issue, congratulations! The Ohio General Assembly, both on merit and in volume heard you. You did a great job of getting the message across. There was also some good news on the estate tax front. During the final few hours of committee work, all mention of the estate tax and its possible demise disappeared. It did not reappear in any floor amendments, so, for now, the estate tax is not a budget issue. We’ll see if we can keep it that way in the Senate. There were municipal income tax changes made in the House version of the budget that are unacceptable. However, because of ongoing negotiations with the Department of Taxation, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, other interested groups and the League, we consider these "placeholder" changes, which will eventually be replaced by the product of those negotiations. Though these were our primary issues in the budget, there are a number of other issues we will be analyzing as we go into the Senate. Some of the changes made to line items and programs for certain state agencies may be of concern to many of our communities. There are also a couple of things which the House did that may present some opportunities for us to do some positive things in the Senate that will not negatively impact the state’s budget numbers. We will keep you informed on these matters, once we more thoroughly go through the reams of paper that are always a key part of the budget process. The Senate has scheduled its consideration of the budget to begin with a hearing on Tuesday, April 22. It will continue its work on the budget throughout the month of May. A possible committee vote is scheduled for June 3. A floor vote in the Senate would follow quickly, leaving most of June for a conference committee between the Houses (and, informally, The Governor) to work out their differences before the June 30 deadline, by which the budget is to be passed. Because we now begin a two-week recess for the General Assembly, we will not publish a Bulletin next Friday. Those of you who receive the Bulletin by e-mail may get some short updates as events warrant, but there will not be enough news or committee hearings to warrant a full Bulletin next week. Signing Up for the Bulletin by E-Mail. We hope the daily budget updates we have been sending out this week to our e-mail subscribers has been helpful. We will continue that practice as the budget debate heats up in the Senate and through most of the time the conference committee meets in June. Should you like to join the hundreds of municipal officials who are part of our e-mail Bulletin network, just send us your e-mail address, your name and name of municipality and whether you currently receive the Bulletin by regular mail. To sign up for this alternative to the regular mail Bulletin send this information to: omunileague2@copper.net. It’s easy, it’s quick, it saves us money and it gives you more information faster and more often. It’s also safer for us. Stuffing envelopes on Friday is always fun, but no one ever got a paper cut from sending out an e-mail. Village Dissolution Bill Passes Senate. HB 24, which would allow up to 50 Ohio villages to be dissolved by order of the court rather than the vote of people, passed the Ohio Senate by a vote of 32-1. This now sets up possible concurrence by the House and the signature of the Governor on this bill. The League opposed this bill in both the House and the Senate, but sentiment, sparked by the problems of one or two villages, is strong to see this measure through. Hearing on Anti-Residency, Anti-Charter Bill Canceled. Because of the crush of activity surrounding the budget, the House State Government Committee hearing on HB 114 was canceled this week. HB 114 bans municipalities and other jurisdictions from requiring their public employees from living inside the jurisdiction’s borders. It is expected that the bill will once again be up for a hearing on April 29, following the General Assembly’s spring recess. NO COMMITTEE HEARINGS IN EITHER HOUSE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY WILL BE SCHEDULED FOR NEXT WEEK.
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