LIMA — A multibillion-dollar legislation is now law in Ohio.
Ohio House of Representatives
Rep. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon: On Wednesday, the House approved the conference committee report for House Bill 26, the state’s two-year, $7.8 billion transportation budget. Gov. John Kasich signed the bill into law Friday.
The bill would retain the wholesale level motor fuel tax, exempting compressed natural gas. Other provisions include allowing an unattended vehicle to be running if locked or parked on residential property, allowing for an increase to transaction fees no greater than $5.25, permitting county commissioners to levy a $5 motor vehicle license fee to be used in transportation-related expenses and allowing watercraft operators to monitor skiers with a mirror, eliminating the requirement to have another person watching the skier from the boat.
“House Bill 26 administers a substantial investment in Ohio’s infrastructure and local communities’ needs while defending the tax dollars of our citizens,” McColley, a bill sponsor and chair of the Finance Subcommittee on Transportation, said earlier this week. “The bill provides innovative solutions for many of our state’s transportation and economic needs and I feel that we are sending a good final product to Gov. Kasich.”
U.S. Senate
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio: Earlier this week, Brown, along with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced a resolution condemning Russian actions in Ukraine, urging President Donald Trump to maintain sanctions on Russia as long as military aggression in that country continues.
“Ohio’s Ukrainian community knows the dangers of unchecked Russian aggression, which is why we must use every opportunity to speak out against Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and continued presence in Ukraine,” Brown said. “This resolution is one small way to condemn Russia’s continued military presence — but we must also take action. That’s why I’m working to maintain and strengthen sanctions on Russia.”
“The United States must stand with Ukraine against Russian aggression,” said Portman, the co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. “The anniversary of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea is an opportunity to highlight the continued challenges Ukraine faces, as well as the fundamental principles of the U.S.-led international system at stake. The United States and its allies must renew their political, economic, and military support for Ukraine and, at a minimum, continue to maintain sanctions on Russia until its behavior changes.”
On Wednesday, Brown introduced two pieces of legislation aimed to address paid sick leave and medical leave policies. The Healthy Families Act would allow workers to earn up to seven paid sick days a year to both address personal medical issues as well as caring for an ill family member. The FAMILY Act would create an insurance plan to give workers up to 12 weeks of time off to address family and medical crises, during which workers would earn up to 66 percent of their income capped at $1,000 per month.
“This plan is about updating our economic policies, our retirement policies, and our labor laws to reflect today’s reality,” Brown said. “These are two important first steps we can take to invest in our workforce, and ensure that hard work is rewarded. We can’t build a strong economy without a strong middle class.”
Additionally, Brown, along with Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, introduced legislation that would support free tax preparation websites for individuals and families to file their income tax returns. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Permanence Act would make permanent a matching grant program from the IRS for volunteer tax preparation sites.
“It should be easy for working Americans to file and claim their hard-earned money without having to hire an expensive tax preparer,” Brown said. “Volunteer tax preparers provide critical assistance to those who need a hand filing so they can make sure they are receiving all the tax credits they are eligible for and getting the return they’ve earned. They also save taxpayers money by cutting down on administrative costs.”
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio: On Tuesday, Portman, along with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, introduced the National Park Service Legacy Act, which would address a $12 billion maintenance backlog at the National Park Service. The bill would establish a National Park Service Legacy Fund, allocating oil and natural gas royalties to maintenance projects in the parks.
“For more than a century, the National Park Service has been keeping America beautiful,” Portman said. “But in order to keep that work going, we need to ensure that they have the right resources. Last year President [Barack] Obama signed into law my National Park Service Centennial Act, which created two new public-private partnerships that will partially reduce the National Park Service’s $12 billion maintenance backlog. This bill will create the Legacy Restoration Fund to provide the National Park Service with funds for deferred maintenance projects, including $73 million of deferred maintenance at eight of Ohio’s national park sites.”
On Thursday, Portman and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, introduced the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act, which would require prescription drug monitoring programs in all states that receive federal funding to combat opioid abuse, as well as making data from those programs available to other states.
“Four out of five heroin addicts in Ohio and across the country started with prescription painkillers. Too many of these people were prescribed a painkiller by their doctor and became addicted or tried a drug prescribed to someone else,” Portman said. “In 2012, there were more opioid prescriptions in Ohio than there were Ohioans, and during just one three-month period, 11 percent of Ohioans were prescribed an opioid painkiller. Since then we’ve made progress in stopping overprescribing, but the consequences of addiction have only gotten worse. This legislation would help Ohio continue to make progress against overprescribing by keeping better track of prescriptions and ensuring that addiction is discovered and treated as early as possible.”
