Legislative Committee Schedule
August 31, 2010
Hi, everyone - SB 297 was introduced recently, which is a bill that makes several changes to the annexation law and some changes related to JEDD's. You can get a full text of this bill at www.legislature.state.oh.us. Though a troublesome bill, we do not expect much, if any, action related to this bill until after the election in November or next year, but thought we should let you know of its introduction. We are currently in negotiations over a companion bill in the House, but do not have a session on that bill until September 21.
Right now, the General Assembly is not expected to meet until after the election, which is why we haven't had any Bulletins of late. After the election, a few days of session are scheduled.
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Go Bucks! John
July 8, 2010
Hi everyone - Before the Congressional break, the U.S. House stuck a rider onto its funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan operations (HR 4899). That rider provides for mandatory collective bargaining for all state and local safety forces (police, fire and emt's). The bill also contains a host of domestic spending proposals and totals $80 billion.
This federal impostion related to collective bargaining is not included in the Senate version of the bill. The domestic spending is also not included in the Senate version. At the moment, the Senate version authorizes $58.8 billion for our military operations.
We have posted a copy of the collective bargaining rider HERE for you to use if you wish to contact our Senators (Sherrod Brown and George Voinovich) with your concerns about this issue. There are in the amendment a number of exemptions possible for states which already have collective bargaining laws or which, like Ohio, have an exemption from collective bargaining for small governments, such as villages.
The Congress will return from break July 12 when the two houses will resume consideration of these issues..
On another matter, the federal requirement for the adoption of "Red Flag" policies has, once again, been extended to November 1.
Hope everyone's having a great summer. John
June 4, 2010
Hi everyone - Early this morning, the legislature finished a large agenda and began its summer recess. We do not expect any committee meetings and no sessions for the next several weeks, but we will let you know if that changes.
We will sort through all the bills that passed and pass along any information of interest to you early next week, though we do not think we'll find too much in that search.
The provision on annexation in SB 110, the septic tank bill, which we have reported on and opposed was dropped from the bill in conference committee and that report was accepted by both Houses. The bill, without any restriction on municipalities to require annexation in the case of sewer hook-ups, now goes to the Governor for his signature.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. John
June 2, 2010
Hi, everyone - This afternoon the Senate refused to concur with House amendments to SB 110, the septic tank bill. A conference comittee to settle differences between the Houses on this bill is scheduled for tomorrow, June 3, in Room 110 at 1:00 p.m. At the moment, amendments that may be offered on this legislation have not been floated in writing and conferees have not been offically appointed.
Thanks. John
May 28, 2010
Hi, everyone - End of session is always an adventure, though we know, because we're dealing with legislation, a more unpredictable rather exciting adventure.
Attached is what we have of next's week committee schedule. We will stay on top of this throughout the day and weekend to let you know of any additions. We expect a hearing and vote on HB 449, which we referred to in our memo yesterday, to be added to the schedule for a vote.
As for SB 110, the septic tank/annexation bill, we virtually had almost every vote on the committee to remove the annexation language until other considerations intervened. With that change in the wind we only ended up with two members voting against SB 110 out of committee (Hagan, Lehner).
We thank the Chair of the committee, Representative Dale Mallory, and other committee members for the courtesy shown to us in committee and fully understand politically the change that occurred.
However, that is not the end of the story. When the bill got to the floor a couple hours later, Representative Hagan, an independent mind if there ever was one, offered the League's amendment to delete the annexation language from SB 110. With strong support from members of both parties, the amendment was adopted 54-42. Subsequently the bill passed 93-3 and will now move to the Senate for concurrence.
The Senate, next week, can concur in House amendments or call for a conference committee to work out the differences between both Houses.
We encourage you to contact members of the Senate urging their concurrence with House amendments.
Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day. John
May 26, 2010
Hi, everyone - As is often the case, nothing at the end of session before the break goes predictably. The House Environment and Brownfield Devlopement Committee heard SB 110, the septic tank bill, today but did not vote on it. Instead they've held it over for another hearing on Thursday. Still in House Hearing Room 113 at 10;00 a.m for all testimony. If you wish to testify that would be great, though I know this notice is even shorter than our last notice on this issue.
HB 449 in the Senate State, Local Goverment and Veteran Affairs Committee, which deals with the quick identification of the remains of service members and extra military leave pay for firefighters and EMTs, was held over in committee for another week.
And speaking of another week, the Senate and House have scheduled Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday session for next week, despite hopes for breaking this week. Evidently, there are still problems to be worked out on the casino enabling legislation.
Thanks to all who have made calls on SB 110 and to those who added their testimony to ours at the hearing today. Hopefully some of you will be able to add your voice to this discussion tomorrow. John
May 23, 2010
Hi, everyone - Despite our earlier report, we got a late notice that the House scheduled a hearing and possible vote on SB 110, the septic system, anti-annexation bill for Wednesday of next week. It is important for those communities impacted by this bill to contact their members of the House to express their opposition to this bill's anti-annexation provision.
The details of the hearing are attached. Should anyone wish to come to the committee and testify against the bill, that would also be extremely helpful. Thanks. John
May 22, 2010
Hi, everyone - This should be our last Legislative update for awhile. This week's upcoming committees and sessions are the last scheduled for a stretch that may extend until after the November elections. A couple of days of session in the middle of June are noted on the schedule as "if needed," which we doubt they will be. No autumn schedule is published to date.
Though we got some partial relief in a Senate amendment for some of our communites from the annexation provision of SB 110, the septic system bill, which passed the Senate, the bill on that provision still needs work in in the House, which we will do, with your help, over the summer and fall. The bill is not up for a hearing in the House this week.
Other bills, except for one, of concern are not scheduled to move significantly next week.
The one bill of concern, HB 449, which the Senate is clearly making its intentions known for passage by scheduling two hearings and possible vote has a provision in the bill that would increase military leave costs for our members by recalculating the work week of firefighters and EMTs and granting those employers increased military leave pay.
We have made it clear and will reiterate this with the Senate this week that we have no problem with the original intent of HB 449. However, this troublesome provision, which was originally HB 433, should be dropped from the bill. It was a last minute amendment in the House and should be a bill considered on its own and not be rushed out of the Senate because of its cost impact on local governments for this incrased military leave pay. Our original letter of opposition to this provision is posted on our website (www.omlohio.org) .
The original intent of HB 449 was to enable the state to work with the federal government to expedite ways for families to identify the remains of their loved ones killed in the military service. Obviously we have no problem with that legislation. We would just like to the provisions and costs of HB 433 removed from the bill by the Senate. Any contact you could have with your Senators on this bill would be very helpful.
Hope everyone had a good weekend and has a great summer. While we won't have regular Bulletins during the break, we will periodically be sending you information on various issues as they pop up. Being an election year, that may be more often than we think. Thanks. John
April 23, 2010
Hi, everyone - We thought we should send out something, just to say, "We don't have much to send out since the General Assembly is basically in recess until May 11." We will let you know if that changes, but will probably not have a schedule of interest to send you until May 7 or so.
On another matter, for those who have been concerned about changes to the state pension funds, especially PERS and Ohio Police and Fire, the Columbus Dispatch reported last weekend, with sources inside the pensions funds and others, that the systems have backed off even introducing bills on their "reforms" until after the November elections. The Dispatch reported the objections from the League over the costs to our members of these changes as a primary reason for this delay.
Hope everyone has a good weekend and we will let you know if the above noted schedule for session or committees changes. John
March 12, 2010
Legislature Heats Up ( a Bit)
After months of not too much activity, we thought we’d go to a regular Bulletin format this week, simply because there does seem to be a little more activity in the General Assembly than we’ve seen for the past few months. Keep in mind, there are only 14 more days of session scheduled until the Legislature breaks for the campaigns. Sandwiched in the midst of that is the Easter break and primaries. Unless there is more bad news on state revenue, the only other issue pressing for a legislative solution before June is enabling legislation regarding the establishment of casinos and the casino board and the reauthorization of capital projects which have not yet been completed.
Retirement
This week the Chairman of the Ohio Retirement Study Commission, Representative Todd Book, announced that a bill is being put together to introduce all the ideas from the public pension funds to make their funds more fully funded. Those ideas include raising retirement ages, increasing contributions from employers and employees and reducing some benefits. We will let you know when we have something with specifics, but do not expect this to be a bill that will move through the legislative process with any great speed. This will be a very deliberative process. We will let you know when we see drafts and expect an introduction date.
Water Liens
An amendment that was considered by the Senate Ways and Means and Economic Development Committee for inclusion in HB 313, that would have limited actions by water systems to collect from apartment owners on unpaid water bills over $200 left by tenants on individual meters, failed to make it in the bill this week. HB 313 moved out of committee with no attempt to insert that amendment. Though this amendment, which has been around for about six years, will, no doubt, surface again, we do not expect that to occur anytime soon.
Thanks to everyone, who, along with the League, made their objections known on this amendment. The League letter of opposition to this bill is on our website (www.omlohio.org).
Annexation Bill
On our website (www.omlohio.org) there is a draft and a synopsis of a bill that has yet to be introduced related to annexation and JEDDs. Right now, we expect that legislation to be introduced by Representatives Winburn and Mecklenborg in the House and Senator Seitz in the Senate at some point. We first began discussing the concepts in this bill with Senator Seitz’s last summer and expressed our opposition to the annexation portions of the bill then. This week Representatives Winburn, Mecklenborg and Gerberry hosted a meeting with the Ohio Township Association and the League to discuss our differences on the bill. Frankly, the OTA said they wanted more than they won in the last annexation bill, even after they declared victory and embraced that bill. The League had to ask how many times would the General Assembly want to trust the judgment of a group who made mistakes in their “victory” after ten years of negotiations.
However, we did also talk of substance and, for the most part, the discussion was what these disagreeable areas between the OML and OTA usually are; civil, firm, and with the possibility of clarity down the road.
We appreciate Senator Seitz’s discussion of these issues with us in a very upfront manner and the hosting of this week’s meeting, and we hope for future meetings between us and the OTA, by Representatives Winburn, Mecklenborg and Gerberry on these important issues.
HB 246, the Presumption Bill
Should you wish to contact your legislators on HB 246, which would give firefighters in Ohio the broadest presumption in the country for diseases as work-related, please, go to our website (www.omlohio.org) where you can read a joint letter of opposition from the League and the Ohio Township Association.
HB 449 Passes House 94-3.
Despite opposition to part of the bill from the League, the Ohio Township Association and the Ohio Fire Chiefs Association, the House overwhelmingly passed HB 449 this week. Our opposition was to the insertion into that bill of HB 433, which will increase the cost of military leave our members must pay for firefighters and EMTs. We will work with the Senate, and hope you will talk to your Senators, about removing the provisions of HB 433 from this bill.
The primary purpose of HB 449 is a joint effort between the state and the Department of Defense to create an easier and clearer way to identify the remains of military personnel killed in service so that grieving families will have clarity about the fate of their loved ones. Obviously, we have no problem with the primary intention of the bill.
Our letter opposing HB 433 is posted on our website (www.omlohio.org).
February 1, 2010
Hi, everyone - Have a memo describing a bill that will be introduced soon for the Ohio Township Association HERE that makes changes to the annexation and JEDD law. A full text of a draft to the bill is available HERE. It is designated New Annexation Bill, simply because without introduction it does not yet have a number.
Thanks. John
January 19, 2010
Hi, everyone - Have attached a bulletin HERE from the Department of Insurance for some changes made in the budget on health insurance. We've had a couple of inquiries on the subject the last couple of weeks and thought it might be of interest.
Hope everyone has a great week. John
