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No. 25 December 17, 1999 PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS BULLETIN TO YOUR COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS & STAFF On to 2000. Though a final settlement on how to spend Ohio's share of the national tobacco settlement could not be reached among all the parties, the General Assembly finished what it was going to finish for this year and recessed on December 9. As you can see from the schedule for the General Assembly (reverse page), next year, when we expect many municipal issue to come to the fore, will start with an emphasis on committee work. Following the March primary, the Assembly will complete most of the work of the 123rd session by holding a number of sessions through the end of May. Abbreviated sessions in early fall are always possible depending on the press of legislative business and a relatively small number of session days are probable following the November elections. HB 483, a bill that would create state centralized collection of municipal corporate net profits taxes for utility companies when they enter the world of deregulation in the year 2001, will most likely receive hearings in the House Ways and Means Committee on January 18 or shortly thereafter. Expect the subject of those hearings to be a substitute bill which is being worked on this month by the sponsor (Mottley) and groups interested in the bill, including the League. The League is opposed to HB 483 and its special treatment of a single industry on the matter of municipal net profits tax. It should be noted that the yield from utility net profits is expected to be relatively small ($10 million statewide by legislative estimates) and yields tax dollars that are currently not paid by the utility companies. While these arguments are used in favor of the bill, we think that the fact that this issue involves a small number of new dollars from a relatively small number of new tax payers also means that this is probably an issue that can be worked out locally. We also have many indications that the fight over annexation law changes may reach the breaking point within the next few weeks. Though the League and the Ohio Township Association still have a couple of very significant points of disagreement between them, those points could be brokered, in some fashion, for better or worse, by legislative action and a bill could begin moving rapidly through the legislative process in January and February. We will keep you informed on any such developments as they occur. We also expect that the General Assembly, in some fashion, will put to rest early in next year's session HB 188 and SB 67. These two bills are being pushed by the cable industry to make municipal competition in the cable industry more difficult. We hope that a reasonable compromise can be reached on these issues and have been working in that direction. However, it is very difficult to tell what any final legislative product on this issue might be, at this point. Finally we expect at least a House floor vote on HB 477 in January. As you will recall, this bill proposes a number of changes to the municipal income tax with the goal of imposing greater uniformity on the tax, while keeping the impact of the bill revenue neutral. HB 477 is a work in progress and still has a few problems, from the League's point of view, on the issue of revenue neutrality. However, except for a couple of changes that the League is advocating on this bill, most of the changes made in HB 477 are acceptable. Should HB 477 pass the House in January, the bill would then face consideration in the Ohio Senate. TENTATIVE FIRST HALF OF 2000 SESSION SCHEDULE OF THE 123rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY Senate President Richard Finan and House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson have announced tentative committee hearing and session dates for the first half of the year 2000 portion of the 123rd General Assembly. The schedule calls for most of January and February to be used, as needed by standing committee chairs, to hold committee hearings in preparation for a more intense schedule of floor sessions during March, April and May. No sessions and/or committee hearings are scheduled between Feb 19 and March 13 due to the early March 7 primary election. Session dates do not go beyond May 24 as leadership hopes to wrap up the lion's share of its work including the capital outlay budget, by that date to enable non-term limited members as well as members seeking other offices to direct their attention to the November general election. Following is the schedule through May 24. JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY BILLS ONLINE The 123rd General Assembly has a great site where you can download bills from the internet. The address is www.legislature.state.oh.us. The site provides the "AS INTRODUCED," "PASSED BY COMMITTEE," and "AS PASSED" versions of the bills as they have gone through the legislative process. One may also obtain an analysis of legislation if you follow the links. The only problem created by this useful tool is that sometimes substitute bills and bills in progress are not posted on the site. This may lead to some confusion about what version someone is working from. If you have a question about whether the online version of a piece of legislation is the most current please contact the League at 614-221-4349. Sometimes we still have to walk over to the Statehouse to get the most recent version of a bill. |
