New Benefits for Public Employees and Dead People.

A second hearing will be held this coming week for HB 262 in the House State Government Committee. HB 262 proposes some changes to Ohio’s elections laws, changes suggested and supported by the Ohio Association of Elections Officials, those who run Ohio’s 88 Boards of Elections.

The major changes proposed by the legislation go to the alleged problems these officials have in finding poll workers for Election Day. The bill would start to address that problem by raising the salaries for those civic-minded folks from $85 to $95 a day. That slight incentive would just be the beginning if you happen to work for a municipality, county, school district or other state or local jurisdiction. If you happen to be a police officer, teacher, sanitation worker, or other public employee, you get $95 plus your employer will be required to pay your salary for that day, under the provisions of HB 262. Thus the state would mandate that all jurisdictions subsidize the county obligation to run Ohio elections. In some cases, the cost for a municipality would be to pay the "public employee turned election worker’s" daily salary, plus pay time- and–a-half for that person’s replacement. The League opposes this provision of HB 262.

From a taxpayer’s point of view and achieving the same result, wouldn’t it be cheaper just to raise the pay of an election worker to $200 a day? If pay is important as a solution to the hiring problem, wouldn’t that increase be enough to ease the hiring burdens of the local Boards of Election? Why burden other jurisdictions and their taxpayers with a more expensive, indirect solution, when a direct solution is available? In these days of open and accountable government, why try to hide of the cost of this scheme? Having the General Assembly step up, raise the pay of election officials and appropriate the money to the counties to pay for it seems like a straightforward solution to this alleged problem. Hiding the costs or loss of services in all jurisdictions is not.

Additionally, HB 262 ironically turns up and faces a problem that occurs when we hate chads and move to new technology for our elections. Seems that if someone voted absentee under the old voting systems and died prior to Election Day, it was easy to just not count their vote. With new technologies coming, to make sure we count every vote, it seems that deleting those dead voters is no longer possible. HB 262 would have statute reflect that change and allow for counting the choices of those dead voters. This would, no doubt, bring a smile to faces of many a long-dead Ohio political boss, who wonder why we ever got away from such a practice?

The State Government Committee will hear from both proponents and opponents of HB 262 at its meeting on Tuesday (see committee schedule). If you wish to testify on this bill, that would be very helpful. But we also ask you to e-mail, write, visit or call your members of the General Assembly and ask them to oppose the provisions of HB 262 which mandate that municipalities and other jurisdictions inefficiently subsidize county election operations.

Need a Gas Well in Your Neighborhood? We’ve Got the Bill For You.

The House Energy and Environment Committee will once again hear HB 278 at its meeting on Wednesday of next week (see committee schedule). Under provisions of this bill, all land-use decisions regarding the placement and spacing of oil and gas wells in Ohio would be given to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Your local zoning and other regulations related to such wells would no longer matter, according to this legislation. Not only is this a terrible policy standing alone, but it also raises additional questions about what other industrial or commercial ventures the state would like to give special and exempted status to in the future. This bill is yet another example of the view of some in the General Assembly that Home Rule is like a buffet. That view is one that allows the General Assembly to profess its love of Home Rule, except when it comes to this or that issue.

Uniform Residential Building Code Bill Heard This Week.

Though it is not on the hearing schedule this coming week, HB 175 was subject to a hearing this week and is very much in play in the Ohio House. Under provisions of the HB 175, the state, through a committee dominated by the building industry, would write and adopt a complete one, two and three family residential building code. Once adopted, local codes could not be in conflict with that code. The Ohio Board of Building Standards, which many of you may be familiar with through the court fights our members have had with that body, would determine what "in conflict" is. That is, of course, a scheme to no longer burden Ohio’s courts with defining the constitutional meaning of "in conflict," a burden the courts has been able to competently manage since the Home Rule provisions of the Ohio Constitution were adopted in 1912.

In meetings with the sponsor and committee chair, it was made clear that the committee would like to move this bill out of committee in either December or January, after one or two more hearings.

If you are interested in being able to better fit your residential building to your community’s standards or amend a state code to make it safer in your community, please, contact your member(s) of the Ohio House and express your concerns very soon.

S-Corp Rider Up for Hearing.

HB 127 is up for a hearing in the Senate Ways and Means in Economic Development Committee this coming week. While the original intent of this bill was to help municipalities redevelop abandoned land, a rider put on the bill in the House would further erode a municipality’s ability to tax earned income from an S corporation.

SENATE/HOUSE COMMITTEE SCHEDULE

Senate Health, Human Services & Aging, (Chr. Wachtmann, 466-8150), Finance Hearing Rm., 9 am

SB 133 RETIREMENT SYSTEM GOVERNANCE (Wachtmann) Regarding governance of Ohio's five public retirement systems. (Informal hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party)

Senate Insurance, Commerce & Labor, (Chr. Nein, 466-8072), North Hearing Rm., 10 am

SB 102 MANUFACTURED HOUSING (Wachtmann) Establishes the Ohio Manufactured Homes Commission to regulate the installation of manufactured housing in Ohio. (1st Hearing - Sponsor)

Senate Ways & Means & Economic Development, (Chr. Amstutz, 466-7505), South Hearing Rm., 11 am

HB 127 TAX DELINQUENT PROPERTY (Jolivette) Permits municipal corporations to acquire tax-delinquent land for redevelopment free from liens for the unpaid taxes. (2nd Hearing-Proponent & Opponent)

House Commerce & Labor, (Chr. Young, 644-6074), Rm. 121, 1:30 pm

HB 208 RETAINAGE PERCENTAGE (Young) Modifies provisions governing the practice of withholding a percentage of payment from contractors, subcontractors, and material suppliers in the form of retainage. (4th Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party - Substitute bill)

House State Government, (Chr. Carmichael, 466-1474), Rm. 122, 3 pm

HB 181 ELECTED OFFICIAL SUSPENSIONS (Schaffer) Permits the Governor to suspend from office in accordance with a specified procedure any elected local official charged with a felony related to the official's administration of, or conduct in the performance of the duties of, the office and prohibits a person who is convicted of certain theft offenses, or any other felony or recent misdemeanor involving fraud, deceit, or theft, from holding a public office or position of public employment, or serving in certain unpaid volunteer positions, that involve substantial management or control of certain public or private property. (5th Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party)

HB 262 POLL WORKERS & OPTION ELECTIONS (Carmichael) Revises the Election Law by increasing the maximum poll worker pay, permitting employees of the state and of political subdivisions to work as judges of elections and receive poll worker pay in addition to their regular employment compensation, eliminating the required ballot language describing certain past local option elections when a local option election is held on sales of alcoholic beverages at a specific location, and makes other changes. (2nd Hearing - Proponent & opponent)

Senate Health, Human Services & Aging, (Chr. Wachtmann, 466-8150), North Hearing Rm., 1:30 pm

SB 133 RETIREMENT SYSTEM GOVERNANCE (Wachtmann) Regarding governance of Ohio's five public retirement systems. (1st Hearing - Proponent, opponent & interested party - Pending referral)

House Energy & Environment, (Chr. Hollister, 644-8728), Rm. 122, 3:30 pm

HB 278 OIL & GAS DRILLING REGULATION (Niehaus) Declares that the Division of Mineral Resources Management in the Department of Natural Resources has exclusive authority to regulate the permitting, location, and spacing of oil and gas wells in the state and revises the laws governing the drilling of oil and gas. (3rd Hearing)

House Banking, Pensions & Securities, (Chr. Blasdel, 466-8022), Rm. 018, 10:30 am

HB 283 RETIREMENT FUND GOVERNANCE (Stewart, J.) Requires state retirement system board members to file financial disclosure statements with the Ohio Ethics Commission; removes the attorney general and auditor of state from the retirement system boards and requires the Ohio Retirement Study Council to have independent fiduciary performance audits of the state retirement systems conducted. (1st Hearing - Sponsor)

House Subcommittee on Growth & Land Use, (Chr. Wolpert, 466-9690), Southern State Community College (Hillsboro), 1 pm