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Busy Week At The Ohio Statehouse As The New Session Gets Started
The new two-year General Assembly has started in earnest, as the members have been sworn in, committee chairs have been appointed and the committee assignments have been announced in both the House and Senate.
The first bills were introduced this week. Of great importance to our members, the ODOT budget bill was introduced Thursday and given a number – House Bill 26. The bill’s text and analysis – but not yet detailed fiscal information – is now online at https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-documents?id=GA132-HB-26. Note that this is the as-introduced version, which will undergo multiple rounds of amendments in the House and Senate. This week ODOT Director Jerry Wray testified to the House Finance Committee – his testimony can be found by clicking here.We look forward to receiving and analyzing more detailed information on the ODOT budget bill.
The Governor has also discussed his General Revenue Fund budget bill, although the actual bill has not yet been introduced at this point. We are very supportive of a budget proposal that will streamline the filing and payment of the municipal income tax on net profits. The change, if passed, would greatly simplify the process by requiring businesses to file just one tax form and submit a single payment online through the Ohio Business Gateway. The Ohio Department of Taxation would then process payments and distribute the revenues back to the appropriate local governments. No more filing tax forms and sending payments to every municipality your business worked in during the year. This simplification of the process is long overdue – and you can be sure that it will be fought tooth and nail by the Ohio Municipal League and the cities. Passage of this portion of the bill will be a priority of the OCA.
OCA is also working as part of a coalition called the Ohio Service Industry Coalition to oppose increases in the state sales tax and expansion of the sales tax to additional services. The proposal in the GRF budget bill would increase the state sales tax from 5.75% to 6.25% and add the sales tax to additional services such as cable TV, landscaping, and other items. Those changes would be made to help balance out a proposed income tax cut of 17%, when it is phased-in.
The budget process is just beginning. The ODOT budget bill must be signed by April 1st and the GRF budget bill must be signed by July 1st. Along the way, there will be many interesting proposals and developments.
Cuyahoga County Judge Rules Against Enforcement of Legislated Local Hire Prohibition
On January 31, 2017, Judge Michael J. Russo of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas issued an Opinion and Order finding that H.B. 180, which prohibits the inclusion of local hire requirements in state and local government contract, is unconstitutional because he believes the legislation infringes upon the City of Cleveland’s Home Rule powers of local self-government. The judge does not agree that H.B. 180 was lawfully enacted under Art. II, §34 of the Ohio Constitution which empowers the General Assembly to pass laws providing “for the comfort, health, safety and general welfare of all employees”. Rather, the judge believes that H.B. 180 seeks only to dictate the terms by which municipalities may contract for workers in construction projects within their realm.” Therefore, the judge ordered that the state of Ohio be permanently enjoined from enforcing H.B. 180 and Ohio Revised Code 9.49. This is an outcome that we had anticipated and we are glad that the case can now move on to the next stage of litigation.
Procedurally, the State Attorney General’s office has 30 days from January 31, 2017 to file a notice of appeal. It is OCA’s understanding that the appeal will be filed. When the Court of Appeals receives the record of proceedings from the common pleas court, the Court of Appeals will send a notice that the record has been filed. The State then has twenty days after the date on which the clerk has mailed the notice of record to file its brief.
Now that the case is at the appellate level, OCA will file a brief in support of the State within the same time allowed for the State’s brief.
Thank You to our Convention Sponsors
OCA would like to thank all of our members who will be sponsoring OCA’s 96th Annual Convention in Rome. It’s not too late! If you would like to sponsor, please contact Rachel Sirca at [email protected] or Emily Pickens at [email protected].
Capitol Tunneling, Inc.
Encore Precast LLC
Hydro-Technologies, Inc.
Lash Paving Company
Miller Bros. Const., Inc.
Paul Peterson Company
Smith & Leavitt Insurance Services
Conaway Conference Reminder!
The Hyatt’s cut-off date for our block of rooms reserved for the Conaway Conference is February 13. If you haven’t made your reservations, you may want to do that right away.
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