Ohio General Assembly Updates

Jeffry D. Harris
Bricker & Eckler LLP

HB 377 LOCAL FISCAL RECOVERY (Hall, T., Swearingen, D.) Introduced on July 15, 2021, this bill seeks to amend just-enacted HB 168 to appropriate the entirety of the U.S. Treasury’s allocation of Local Fiscal Recovery Funds ($844MM) to nonentitlement units of local government (NEUs), to be distributed by Ohio OBM.

This measure was fast-tracked for hearings in the House Finance Committee and cleared the entire House on May 18 in a 75-9 vote.

On June 1, this bill’s appropriations more than doubled as the State’s $500MM in funding for Appalachian-area initiatives was inserted by the Senate Finance Committee. That same day, the Senate passed the amended measure 31-1 and the House concurred in those Senate amendments in an 80-10 vote. The bill was signed into law by Governor DeWine on June 28, 2022.

HB 430 PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT (Cross, J.) Introduced on September 21, 2021, this bill enacts new R.C. 713.28 related to property development adjacent to natural gas transmission pipelines. Specifically, this measure would require a pipeline operator to provide certain information to a public authority if a public improvement is located within 660 feet of the center point of natural gas pipelines, as well as require developers to include such information in their project plans. Further, a public authority would be authorized to withhold project approval until the bill’s requirements have been met.

This measure was reported out by the House Energy & Natural Resources Committee in February 2022, and the full House passed the legislation unanimously on March 2.

On June 1, 2022, the entire Senate voted to approve the bill, which was amended and reported out by the Energy & Public Utilities Committee (with one such change related to landline telephone service cessation by telecommunications companies). The House concurred in those changes on the same day. The bill was signed into law by Governor DeWine on June 24, 2022.

SB 354 FORECLOSURE SALES (Blessing, L.) Introduced on July 14, 2022, this bill seeks to restrict owners of rental housing – who themselves owe outstanding fines for building code violations or own housing units that are in active violation of building codes – from bidding on properties in judicial foreclosure sales; the bill also seeks to create the Ohio Housing Study Committee.