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No. 5 February 26, 1999 PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS & STAFF House Panel Passes Transportation Budget The House Finance Committee took the first step this week in creating a stream of budgets that will dominate the activities of the Ohio General Assembly for the next four months. With a unanimous vote, the finance panel sent to the House Rules Committee a bill (HB 163) that outlines the panel's vision of how $4.3 billion ought to spent by the Ohio Department of Transportation, as well as how the Department of Public Safety ought to spend $800 million over the next two years, beginning July 1, 1999. The passage of the Transportation budget is the panel's first completed budget. That action will now be followed by consideration of the budget for Ohio Industrial Commission (HB 181) and the budget for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation (HB 180). After warming up with those noncontroversial budgets, the House committee will turn its attention to the Education Budget and the budget for the state's General Fund. Original proposals for those budgets are expected to be outlined in Governor Bob Taft's State of the State speech on March 9, with formal introduction of those documents to follow around March 15. In creating its proposal for the ODOT budget, the House Finance Committee pretty much stuck with the expected script, though the panel's efforts were not without some smaller amendments directed at ODOT and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, a division of the Department of Public Safety. If the House panel's ideas hold throughout the legislative process, ODOT will be required to extract "warranties" on more of its road projects and the department will be allowed to do more projects through a "design-build" process. The Waterway Safety Fund, which provides facilities for boaters, will benefit from an increase in its share of the gas tax (from the current 1/2% to 3/4%), which is said to be more reflective of the contribution boaters make to the state's gas tax. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles, underfire for its implementation of a "random verification" program by which motorists are required to confirm their insurance coverage in response to a BMV mail inquiry, will face some new hoops to jump through before the bureau can suspend a driver's license who is unresponsive to such an inquiry. A license suspension resulting from the random verification program would also no longer be allowed to be the basis upon which a peace officer may arrest a motorist or impound a vehicle. A Task Force to study the program and recommend changes in the program by July, 1999 is also set up by the legislation. Although the League tried unsuccessfully to mandate ODOT participation in statute for state highway projects within city limits, the panel did recommend a study of the problem. That study, to be conducted by the Legislative Budget Office and completed by July 1, 2000, is to determine a) the need for additional resources to meet local construction and maintenance needs for highways, bridges and mass transit; b) identity possible alternative local and state revenue sources for those purposes; and c) consider how the state's allocation of funds to local projects could be done in ways more responsive to local needs. It seems some of the gas for the amendment drained off when ODOT officials argued to legislators that a mandated form of cooperation on ODOT's part would hamper the agency's flexibility to meet needs and that the agency could be helpful to these city projects without such a mandate. The League will continue to pursue this issue when the bill reaches the Senate. The bill is scheduled to be voted on by the House and sent to the Senate this coming Wednesday. Gas Tax Rumblings? Given the House Finance Committee's understandable hesitancy to simply mandate that ODOT not give up on the state highway system when that system happens to cross a city line, the League's interest in exploring with the legislature the possibility of new revenues for meeting local transportation needs has increased. Many groups, including the League, have for some time been interested in adjusting the state's motor vehicle use fees (gas tax). With the current windfall in ODOT revenues, stemming from the federal "T-21" legislation, many interests believe it is time to consider local needs through a 3 cent per gallon increase in the motor vehicle use fees. Such a matching of new money for ODOT and a small infusion of new dollars for local needs could move Ohio forward in a significant way on many unmet state and local transportation needs. Such an initiative cannot occur without your help. Unless you begin talking to your local legislators about the need for new transportation dollars, especially in the area of rehabilitation and repair of existing transportation systems, an effort to push an increase in the motor vehicle use fees will not get off the ground. Such discussions on your part only need to be educational in nature. Such discussions are needed to bring forth consideration and an awareness of the issue at the local level. Solutions, such as a 3 cent adjustment or some other plan, can be designed within the legislative process once that awareness is achieved. Please, help by talking to your members of the General Assembly over the next couple of weeks about the needs you envision for your community over the next few years and about your ability or inability to pay for those needed projects and improvements. Any effort you can make in this area at this time would be greatly appreciated and contribute a critical element to this ongoing discussion. "Work Locally, Live Globally" Bill Up for a Hearing SB 46, a bill that would ban all local residency requirements, is up for its first hearing this coming week. The hearing, for sponsor testimony only, will be held in the State and Local Government and Veteran's Affairs Committee of the Senate at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3 in the Senate's South Hearing Room. The bill, a version of which was defeated on the floor of the Senate last session, is heavily backed by the police and fire unions. Under the provisions of the bill, the state would try to overturn any existing or future residency requirement for any employee of any local government. This ban would apply to all residency requirements now in place, whether those requirements were put in place through ordinance, resolution, charter amendment or collective bargaining agreement. COMMITTEE SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF MARCH 1, 1999 TUESDAY, MARCH 2 SENATE INSURANCE, COMMERCE & LABOR, 10 a.m., North Hearing Rm. SB 65 CONTRACTING PREFERENCES (Wachtmann) Requires certain political subdivisions to provide a preference, under specified circumstances, when comparing bids for the awarding of public improvement contracts. (1st Hearing) SENATE HIGHWAYS & TRANSPORTATION, 1:30 p.m., North Hearing Rm. HB 163 TRANSPORTATION BUDGET (Core) Makes appropriations for programs related to transportation and public safety for the biennium beginning July 1, 1999 and ending June 30, 2001 and provides authorization and conditions for the operation of those programs. (1st Hearing - Informal) SENATE WAYS & MEANS, 1:30 p.m., South Hearing Rm. SB 67 CABLE COMPETITION (Hottinger) Provides for fair competition in the provision of cable television services by establishing conditions under which governmental cable operators may be formed, including the franchising of those operators by the Public Utilities Commission and by taxing such operators in the manner of private cable operators. (1st Hearing) HOUSE COMMERCE & LABOR, 7:30 p.m., Rm. 121 HB 101 LABOR REQUIREMENTS (Young) Prohibits public authorities from imposing certain labor requirements as a condition of performing public works. (3rd Hearing) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3 HOUSE HEALTH, RETIREMENT & AGING, 9:30 a.m., Rm. 017 HB 138 TRAUMA CARE (Schuck) Provides quality assurance for trauma care and makes other changes in the laws regarding emergency medical services and fire services. (3rd Hearing) HB 199 ALTERNATIVE PUBLIC PENSION (Cates) Creates an alternative retirement program for public employees covered by Ohio's state retirement systems. (1st Hearing) HOUSE ETHICS & STANDARDS, 11 a.m., Rm. 113 HB 201 PUBLIC RECORDS (Jacobson) Generally prohibits the release of specified peace officer residential and familial information kept by a peace officer's employer. (1st Hearing) HOUSE PUBLIC UTILITIES, After session, Rm. 017 HB 5 ELECTRIC DEREGULATION (Mead) Declares that the public policy of the State of Ohio is to effect the restructuring of the electric industry pursuant to specified goals permitting effective competition in the provision of retail electric service to all Ohio consumers. (2nd Hearing) HB 152 EMERGENCY PHONE ASSESSMENT (Logan) Provides for a monthly charge not exceeding 50-cents on telephone access lines to fund the operating and equipment costs of establishing and maintaining no more than one public safety answering point of a countywide 9-1-1 system that previously lacked funding. (1st Hearing) HB 188 CABLE TELEVISION (Olman) Provides for fair competition in the provision of cable television services by establishing conditions under which governmental cable operators may be formed, including the franchising of those operators by the Public Utilities Commission, and by taxing such operators in the manner of private cable operators. (1st Hearing) HOUSE LOCAL GOVERNMENT & TOWNSHIPS, 4 p.m., Rm. 121 HB 40 CONTRACT PREFERENCE (Jolivette) Requires certain political subdivisions to provide a preference, under specified circumstances, when comparing bids for the awarding of public improvement contracts. (4th Hearing - Possible vote) HB 91 TOWNSHIP PARTIONING (Terwilleger) Provides that a township reduced at the request of a municipal corporation to less than 22 square miles may continue as a reduced township unless a petition is filed by the township electors and makes other changes. (3rd Hearing - Possible vote) HB 124 MUNICIPAL INVESTMENTS (Sulzer) Permits a municipal corporation to include the treasurer of a city or village, rather than the city director of law or village solicitor, among the officials who may order the investment of moneys in the municipal corporation's treasury. (1st Hearing) HB 174 VILLAGE MONEY (Winkler) Requires that money remaining after a village's surrender of corporate powers be distributed to the one or more school districts with territory located within the village. (1st Hearing) HB 185 COUNTY BUDGET COMMISSIONS (Myers) Requires that alternative apportionment of the undivided local government fund and undivided local government revenue assistance fund by a county budget commission be subject to approval of the legislative authority of the city having the greatest population residing in the county. (1st Hearing) HB 187 TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT (Olman) Refers to townships that have adopted the limited self-government form of township government as "limited home rule government" townships, makes changes in the laws governing those townships, permits any township, for specified purposes, to issue securities or change the provisions for issuing debt, changes the composition and voting practices of county planning commissions, and changes the Subdivision Law to give townships notice of proposed changes. (1st Hearing) SENATE STATE & LOCAL GOVT. & VETERAN'S AFFAIRS, 5 p.m., South Hearing Rm. SB 46 RESIDENCE REQUIREMENT (Schafrath) Prohibits a political subdivision from requiring its employees to reside in any specific area of this state. (1st Hearing) SB 68 PRIMARY ELECTION (Watts) Changes the date of the primary election held in presidential election years from the third Tuesday in March to the first Tuesday in March. (1st Hearing - Pending referral) SB 31 PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEES (Latta) Requires the appointing authorities that appoint members of district public works integrating committees to appoint alternates for those members to act in their absence. (2nd Hearing) ****************************************************************************************** Vehicle Cents-Per Mile: IRS Revenue Procedure 98-63, (published Internal Revenue Bulletin, 1998-52, December 28, 1998). Internal Revenue Procedure 98-63 lowered the standard business mileage rate from 32.5 cents per mile in 1998 to 31 cents per mile in 1999, but IRS Announcement 99-7 (Internal Revenue Bulletin 1999-2, January 11, 1999) delayed the effective date of the new rate until April 1, 1999. All other provisions included in Revenue Procedure 98-63 are effective January 1, 1999. RS ****************************************************************************************** |
