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No. 6 March 5, 1999 PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS & STAFF ODOT Budget On Track (Or in Fast Lane Or Something) The Ohio House passed out the $4.3 billion Transportation Budget this week by a large margin. The bill was approved with no significant amendments adopted on the floor of the House. The bill now goes to the Ohio Senate, where informal hearings on the measure have already occurred before the Senate Highways & Transportation Committee. That Committee is expected to pop out the Transportation Budget in two weeks. Though the League, in concert with several other groups, will continue to seek new revenue for local transportation needs in this session of the General Assembly, that effort will not occur in the Transportation Budget. Because of a Supreme Court ruling, the time constraints that the legislature must operate under for the passage of the Transportation budget leaves little room for major new policies to surface during the Transportation Budget process. We believe that means that such policies must then be considered after the budget process is completed and will work toward that end in the upcoming months. That gives municipal officials plenty of time to educate their local legislators about upcoming unmeetable local transportation needs. It also gives all of us some time to assess how ODOT will integrate new federal dollars from "T-21" into its partnership with local governments. Cable Industry Bill May Have Unforeseen Consequences A second hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee will be held this week on SB 67, which is a bill designed by the cable TV industry to raise obstacles and create new hurdles for any municipality that might be interested in getting into competition with its local cable operator. Such operations, of which we have two in Ohio, are ancillary to municipalities creating fiber optic systems for the provision of other services to their residents. The League has a number of concerns about this bill, even though the potential for such systems is very limited. First, we believe that several provisions of the bill are simply unconstitutional and try to drive large holes into the whole notion of Home Rule. Fortunately, the Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, Senator Lou Blessing has asked that the Legislative Service Commission take a look at those constitutional questions before the committee takes any action on this bill. Our second concern is one of the wisdom of the legislature setting up legislative barriers to infrastructure systems, such as fiber optic systems, that may or may not be best fitted to the public sector in the twenty-first century. At the beginning of this century, it was very difficult to guess which infrastructure systems would best fit into the public and which would fit best into the private sector. In 1900, you might have guessed that fire protection and mass transit would always remain in the private sector, even though today that would be unimaginable. You might even have guessed that telephone and electric power would go to the public sector, even though just the opposite happened with the majority of both systems. Streets and roads would probably have been an easy guess, as long as you knew Ohio would eventually deal with 15 million cars and little horse traffic. And you might have placed water and sewer into the public sector if you understood the public health aspects of water-borne diseases and the impact of raw sewage on not only fish, but the folks who live downstream from you. Some of that wasn't understood or dealt with until decades after the start of the century. Given all that, we would urge the legislature to be very cautious about any system, such as fiber optics, that may well be necessary as a public system to keep twenty-first century municipalities economically competitive and good places to live decades from now. SB 67, as currently written, would take the problems of a couple of communities, where the local cable operators obviously weren't doing a very good job of providing their customers with the service they wanted, and make those problems subject to a statewide scheme of regulation. Finally, we believe that this effort on the part of the cable industry to "level the playing field" with potential municipal competitors flies falsely under the assumption that the playing field isn't already level. In each case of municipal entry into the field of cable TV, the cable company's monopoly and system is already in place when a municipality considers entry. In each case, entry by a municipality into the field is restricted and constrained by referenda, open meetings and open records laws, financial and ethics restrictions governing every action and expenditure, prevailing wage laws and every decision made by a local official subject to the judgment of the voters in the next election. Its seems to us that those hurdles already make it a heck of a lot more difficult for a municipality to enter the field of cable TV than it is for any cable operator to grab their franchise by merely achieving a majority vote on council. Please, urge your local legislators to be very cautious in their approach to this legislation. We think the consequences of this bill may be much more far reaching than anyone believes upon a first reading of the legislation. Electric DEREG Still Moving Electric Deregulation is still kicking its way through the legislature, though the time table for that legislation seems to change fairly often. The League, though concerned about many aspects of this issue, is primarily concentrating on the immediate tax implications of any legislation that may come through the General Assembly. We want to make sure that our members' revenues are held harmless in the changeover from a regulated to a deregulated electric industry. On that front, we are fairly comfortable that the General Assembly will try to find an equitable formula for protecting local revenues, but we will continue work closely with legislators who are deeply involved in this legislation to come to fair conclusion. COMMITTEE SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF MARCH 8, 1999 TUESDAY, MARCH 9 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. (2nd Hearing) SENATE HIGHWAYS & TRANSPORTATION, After Session, North Hearing Rm. HB 163 Transportation Budget (Core) Makes appropriations for programs related to transportation and public safety. (3rd Hearing) SENATE WAYS & MEANS, 3 p.m., South Hearing Rm. SB 82 Public Funds Investment (Johnson) Permits subdivision or county treasurers to invest in certain no-load money market mutual funds in the absence of a written investment policy on behalf of the subdivision or county or in the cases of exemptions from or noncompliance with specified initial or continuing education requirements by the subdivision or county treasurer. (1st Hearing - Pending referral) SB 71 Volunteer Tax Break (DiDonato) Creates a state income tax deduction of up to $750 for amounts paid by a volunteer firefighter, volunteer emergency medical service provider, or auxiliary police officer for training programs, clothing, and equipment used primarily for fire-fighting, emergency medical service, or law enforcement purposes. (1st Hearing - Pending referral) 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. (2nd Hearing) HOUSE TRANSPORTATION & PUBLIC SAFETY, 3 p.m., Rm. 116 HB 148 Handicapped Parking (Williams) Increases the penalties for a violation of the special parking privileges established for persons with certain disabilities and makes changes in the application process for removable windshield placards. (2nd 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. (4th Hearing) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10 OHIO RETIREMENT STUDY COUNCIL, 8:30 a.m., Rm. 017 HB 154 Pers Benefits (Stapleton) Exempts from the Public Employees Retirement System membership public employees under age 18 if the employment is intended to be for less than six months and changes the deadline for filing a PERS disability benefit application. 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) ENERGY, NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT, 10 a.m., South Hearing Rm. SB 20 Antidegradation (Cupp) Declares, for purpose of the state antidegradation statute, that a historically channeling watercourse provides technical, social and economic benefits and precludes the Director of Environmental Protection from requiring further antidegradation review upon making specific findings, including a finding that work is necessary to restore or maintain such a watercourse. (2nd 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. (5th 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. (2nd 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 an 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. (2nd 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 and makes other changes. (2nd Hearing) HB 189 Municipal Population Count (Taylor) Excludes persons under detention in a detention facility from persons counted to determine the population of a municipal corporation for purposes of classifying the municipal corporation as a village or a city. (1st Hearing) SENATE STATE & LOCAL GOVT. & VETERAN'S AFFAIRS, 5 p.m., South Hearing Rm. SB 31 Public Works Committees (Latta) Requires the appointing authorities that appoint members of district public works integrating committees to appoint alternates for those embers to act in their absence. (3rd Hearing - Possible vote) SB 46 Residence Requirement (Schafrath) Prohibits a political subdivision from requiring its employees to reside in any specific area of this state. (2nd Hearing) THURSDAY, MARCH 11 HOUSE ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT, 9 a.m., Rm. 114 HB 197 Sludge Disposal (Krebs) Authorizes the Director of Environmental Protection to issue permits for the use, storage, treatment, or disposal of sludge and sludge materials, imposes an annual sludge fee, and otherwise regulates sludge and sludge materials. (1st Hearing) SENATE HIGHWAYS & TRANSPORTATION, 9:30 a.m., North Hearing Rm. HB 163 Transportation Budget (Core) Makes appropriations for programs related to transportation and public safety. (4th Hearing) New Publication: Powers and Duties of Village Fiscal Officers: A Source Book The OML now has available for village clerks, treasurers, and clerk-treasurers a 370-page publication covering virtually every aspect of the powers and duties of village fiscal officers. Designed to supplement training materials provided by the Auditor of State, Powers and Duties of Village Fiscal Officers serves as an introduction to the job for the novice fiscal officer and as a reference work for the more experienced official. The text includes topics such as budget procedures, financing municipal operations, budget implementation, purchasing and contracting, treasury management, bonds and debt limitations, as well as chapters dealing with the legislative responsibilities of the village clerk. The Appendices include numerous tables of information dealing with voting, appointment and removal of village officers and employees, public hearings, sources of information, and Revised Code references to the extensive duties and responsibilities of the village fiscal officer. Also included are sections dealing with state and federal wage and payroll reporting requirements, Ohio’s "Sunshine" Laws and Ethics Laws, model ordinances, etc. The source book is punched for a 3-ring binder and costs $15.00 per copy plus $4.00 postage and handling, for a total of $19.00. You provide the binder. To order your copy, call the OML at 1-800-561-3597. |
