|
Please Make A PAC Contribution In Support Of OCA’s Legislative Efforts
The Ohio Contractors Association has been very engaged at the Ohio Statehouse representing the concerns of your heavy/highway construction industry. Right now the passage of the ODOT budget bill is being debated. The bill includes billions of dollars in funding for road and bridge construction and maintenance, along with many policy issues affecting our industry. It must be passed by the end of March. The general revenue fund budget bill is also being debated for passage by June 30th and it too contains policy issues that affect your business. This is the time of year that many issues of concern for our members tend to come up in the legislature, such as abolishing the prevailing wage; force account limit increases; competitive bidding thresholds; reverse auctions; and others.
Part of the reason for our success at the statehouse is due to your generous contribution to the Ohio Contractors Political Action Committee. Having an active PAC allows OCA’s Legislative Director to attend fundraisers and build relationships with legislators who are deciding which laws get passed and which don’t. It allows us to support the campaigns of those legislators and statewide candidates who value good government by supporting our issues, and to say no to those who don’t support our issues. It is important for our industry and for you individually to engage financially via the Ohio Contractors PAC to ensure that our voice is heard at the state government level.
Your financial commitment to a strong PAC helps make the Ohio Contractors Association one of the most effective associations in the state. If you haven’t already contributed to the Ohio Contractors PAC this year, please call the OCA office today at 800.229.1388 to make a contribution on your personal credit card. Or mail a personal check to Ohio Contractors PAC, 1313 Dublin Rd., Columbus, OH 43215. We appreciate your support in advancing the concerns of our industry at the Ohio Statehouse.
Would You Like Ohio To Have Centralized Collection For Your Municipal Net Profits Tax? We’re Looking For Contractors To Support The Proposal
OCA is supporting the Governor’s budget proposal to simplify Ohio’s municipal income tax collection procedure by centralizing the collection through the state, instead of to multiple individual municipalities.
The bill transfers the responsibility for collecting and administering municipal income taxes on business income from individual municipalities to the state. Under the bill, rather than submitting separate tax returns to different municipalities based on where a business' income is earned, the business would submit a single tax return to the Department of Taxation, via the Ohio Business Gateway, covering all of the business' income. The Department would collect the taxes in one payment and then distribute the revenue among municipalities.
The shift applies to the income of all businesses, other than sole proprietors and other single-member entities owned by one individual, beginning in 2018. Under the bill, a municipality would continue to administer its tax on the income of individuals, including sole proprietors and such single-member entities. Each municipality would still control the rate of its tax on business income, and whether any business credits are allowed against that municipality's tax.
The proposal is the target of a great deal of opposition by the Ohio Municipal League and cities around the state. We would like to have a couple of contractors testify in person or in writing about the positive effect this change would have for our members. If you have someone in your company who would like to support this proposal by either writing a letter of support or testifying, please have them contact Angela Van Fossen, OCA’s Director of Legislative & Environmental Affairs at [email protected].
House Votes to Revoke OSHA Recordkeeping Rule, Heads to Senate
The House voted along party lines 231-191 March 1 to repeal an OSHA rule that made it easier for the agency to cite employers for not recording on-the-job injuries and illnesses. The rule extends the window for Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors to cite employers for recordkeeping violations to five years. The prior limit was six months.
During the debate leading up to the vote, the resolution's sponsor, Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), called the rule “an outrageous power grab” by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Defending the rule, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said the regulation helped prevent employers from underreporting workplace injuries to keep their workers’ compensation insurance costs low, stay eligible for government contracts and lower the likelihood of OSHA inspections.
Despite the vote, the recordkeeping rule remains in effect. It will be enforced until the Senate passes a companion resolution and President Donald Trump signs the joint resolution. There is no guarantee the Senate will take action before Congress's opportunity to cancel the rule expires, likely in the late spring. Of the 13 resolutions the House has approved to overturn rules issued in the last six months of the Obama administration, the Senate has voted on three, passing all. Click here to read this article in its entirety.
Construction Labor Shortages Might Boost Off-Site Work
Construction contractors struggling to find enough skilled labor for work at project sites are increasingly getting more work done off-site. Prefabrication, also called modular construction, is an alternative to the traditional method of bringing basic building materials to a site and putting them together there. Under the prefabrication method, entire components of a structure—a preformed concrete foundation or a panelized wall, for instance—are assembled off-site in a factory or other manufacturing setting before being moved to the site.
The key difference is that in the factory, employees work together on completing the module, rather than segregating work strictly across trade lines. The repetitive nature as well as use of technology and manufacturer techniques means that many tasks do not necessarily require a master carpenter. There is a “relatively small, fast-growing cottage industry of prefabrication innovators,” but many other contractors are having trouble making prefabrication effective, according to a February survey of almost 200 companies by FMI Corp. and the BIMForum. FMI is a management consulting and investment banking service provider for the construction and engineering industries, while the BIMForum promotes industry adoption of building information modeling. Click here to read more.
ODOT Request for Proposals for DBE Business Development
ODOT has undertaken a new strategy to increase the capacity and capabilities of DBEs. Two contracts of up to $200,000 each are being advertised for a team of a contractor, consultant, and a business development firm to work with up to 10 DBEs. The contracts will be divided into the northern half and southern half of the State. The proposals are due April 4, and the contract period will be from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for this contract, please follow this link:
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/ContractAdmin/Contracts/PurchDocs/521-17.pdf
Conaway Presentations Available on ODOT’s Website
The presentations from this year’s Conaway Conference are now available on ODOT’s website. Click here to see them.
|