Session Starts: Tax Repeal and Concealed Carry Part of the Agenda.

As is usually the case, the General Assembly is getting off to a relatively slow start as sessions begin again. While there have not been an abundance of hearings on municipal issues, there have been issues that related to municipal government buzzing about the Statehouse.

The first is the efforts led by Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to force by petition the early roll back of the state sales tax from 6% to 5%. The General Assembly put this temporary increase in the sales tax in the last budget. It was designed to bridge the gaps in funding for this biennium, which ends on June 30, 2005. Under the Blackwell proposal, voters would be given the chance to repeal that temporary tax on the November ballot. If repealed, the tax increase would end in December, 2004, instead of June 30, 2005, thus leaving a significant hole (est. $800 million) in the state’s biennial budget. Across the board budget cuts to fill that gap would result, it is estimated, in a 6.1% cut in local government funds for the months of December, 2004 through June of 2005. Of course, that assumes budget cuts are across the board, which they never are. It also assumes the state’s revenue and expenditure projections are correct and that there would be no cuts in Medicaid.

Under the Blackwell plan, the groups he leads is trying to submit about 98,000 signatures to the General Assembly, asking the Assembly to repeal the tax. While the group has gathered a more than adequate number of signatures, those signatures are undergoing extensive and time-consuming challenges at local Boards of Election. Those challenges may be key to this whole issue. If those challenges hold up the submission of the signatures to the General Assembly long enough that could render the whole issue moot.

Once signatures are submitted to the General Assembly, that body has four months to consider the issue. Should local challenges, which require a court hearing, keep the petitions from the General Assembly long enough, the petitions could get to the General Assembly and be held there for four months. The General Assembly could then say "no" to the petitions and the petitioners may not have enough or any time to gather an additional 98,000 signatures in time (August) to get their issue on the ballot in November. If the issue is not on the ballot in November, there is not another chance to challenge the tax increase before it runs out in June of 2005.

A chance to be against a tax increase, an election year, jockeying for the Governor’s race in 2006, keeping a tenuous budget in balance and a Presidential election, all in one year? Yeah, this could get dicey.

A second issue which we have had questions on is the conceal-carry bill (HB 12) that was passed and signed by Governor Taft. Under provisions of the bill, the license to carry a concealed weapon does not extend that privilege to public buildings or space owned by a political subdivision and leased to someone else. The bill also allows political subdivisions to post a ban on concealed carry on any property that they own, such as a public park. Political subdivisions are also given immunity for anything that happens on their property related to a person carrying a licensed concealed weapon.

HB 278 Out of Committee.

HB 278 was voted out of the House Energy and Environment Committee and is now in House Rules waiting scheduling for a floor vote in the full House. Despite revisions made in the bill, it still says that, despite case law and Constitution, municipal concurrent police powers and the like inherent in Home Rule don’t exist when it comes to regulating oil and gas wells anywhere in Ohio.

HB 278 would give all power to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to regulate the placement and operation of oil and gas wells. Though this has been tried and failed before, in the case of the hazardous waste industry, it will be tried again if HB 278 is passed. We know this is a regional issue, especially applicable in Eastern and, particularly Northeastern Ohio, where affordable reserves of oil and gas exist, but, the attempt to prohibit Constitutionally protected municipal powers should be important to all. We expect many other industries will be looking for this same kind of protection should HB 278 pass.

We urge you to contact your members of the General Assembly and ask for "No" vote on HB 278.

COMMITTEE SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF JANUARY 19, 2004

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

SB 179 CONTRACTOR LICENSING (Nein) Provides for the licensure of backflow contractors and prefabricated fireplace contractors; changes the name of the Ohio Construction Industry Examining Board to the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board and makes other changes related to that board. (1st Hearing-Sponsor)

House Commerce & Labor, (Chr. Young, 644-6074), McKinley Rm. (formerly 121), 1:30 p.m.

HB 310 MANUFACTURED HOUSING (Raga) Establishes the Ohio Manufactured Homes Commission to regulate the installation of manufactured housing in Ohio. (3rd Hearing-Opponent)

House Criminal Justice, (Chr. Latta, 466-8104), Hayes Rm. (formerly114), 2:30 p.m.

HB 58 TAX REFORM DIRECTIVE (Kilbane) Directs the General Assembly in its deliberations regarding the enactment of reforms of the state's tax laws. (2nd Hearing-Proponent)

House State Government, (Chr. Carmichael, 466-1474), Taft Rm. (formerly 122), 3 p.m.

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. (6th Hearing-Proponent, opponent & interested party - Possible vote)

House Public Utilities, , House Public Utilities (Chr. Olman, 466-8068), Chr. Olman, 466-8068 Rm. 313, 10:30 a.m.

HB 361 ENHANCED 9-1-1 SERVICE (Flowers) Provides for wireless enhanced 9-1-1, including requirements for its operation, administration, funding, and regulation and permits a telephone company that is a wireline service provider to fund through an existing tax credit mechanism the total nonrecurring rates and charges for an updating or modernization of the wireline telephone network portion of a 9-1-1 system or a modification of that telephone network to provide wireless enhanced 9-1-1. (1st Hearing-Sponsor)

House Ways & Means, (Chr. Kilbane, 466-0961), McKinley Rm. (formerly 121), 10 a.m.

HB 319 MUNICIPAL TAX ADMINISTRATORS (Raussen) Authorizes the Tax Commissioner to provide municipal income tax administrators with access to school district income tax records and returns. (1st Hearing-Sponsor)

HB 356 SCHOOL DISTRICT TAXES (Widowfield) Permits school districts in a county to impose, with voter approval, a sales and use tax in the county. (1st Hearing-Sponsor)

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