Senate Bills of Interest for the 127th General Assembly Senate Bills of Interest in the 127th General
Assembly Ohio Farm
Bureau Federation Last
Updated 6/11/08. SJR 1 EMINENT DOMAIN - (Coughlin) Proposing to enact Sec. 19b
of Article I of the Constitution of the State of Ohio to provide limits on the
power of a public authority to take private property for a public use. Passed Senate 21- 11. Defeated in House
56 - 42 (60 votes needed) SJR 2 PROPERTY TAXES - (Coughlin) Proposing to amend Sec. 2a of
Article XII and to enact Sec. 2b of Article XII of
the Co nstitution of the State of Ohio to limit
increases in the taxable value of real property to two percent per year. Referred to Senate Ways
& Mean & Economic Development, awaiting first hearing. SJR 8 WATER RIGHTS – (Grendell) Proposing to enact Section 19b of Article I of the Constitution of the State of Ohio
to affirm certain property interests with respect to ground water and other
water on or flowing through a property owner's land so as to maintain the
stability of Ohio's economy. Passed Senate and House. Senate concurred on House changes, awaiting
governor’s signature. SCR 6 COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - (Roberts) To memorialize Congress to
enact legislation providing for the funding and immediate implementation of the
portions of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 dealing with
country of origin labeling. Referred to Senate Agriculture. Received second hearing. SCR 16 - IMMIGRATION - (Cates) To urge the President of the United States and the
United States Congress to secure our nation's borders and to aggressively
enforce all existing federal immigration laws. Passed Senate.
Referred to House State Government & Elections and has received two
hearings.
SB 1 SCHOOL FUNDING - (Padgett) To reserve this bill number for the governor's school funding reform plan. Referred to Senate Education, awaiting governor's school funding program. SB 7 EMINENT DOMAIN - (Grendell) To formally state the
General Assembly's intentions in its upcoming deliberations on reforming Ohio's
laws regulating the exercise of eminent domain. Passed Senate 29
-3. Passed
House 71 -27. Senate concurred
with changes. SB 12 ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT - (Wilson) To direct the General
Assembly in its deliberations regarding measures that stimulate job growth and
provide for the economic well-being of the state, reduce the state's reliance
on foreign energy sources, and improve the state's environment in order to
protect the health and safety of the public. Referred to Senate Energy & Public
Utilities, awaiting first hearing. SB 15 GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS - (Boccieri) To formally state the General Assembly's intentions in
its upcoming deliberations on providing a more responsive and responsible
government. Introduced
in Senate, awaiting committee assignment. SB 28 ETHANOL GRANTS - (Kearney) To create an ethanol and biodiesel producer grant program. Referred to Senate Energy & Public Utilities. Received one hearing. SB 32 ALTERNATIVE FUELS/BROWNFIELDS
- (Boccieri)
To promote the production of alternative fuels, the application of clean coal
energy generation methods, and the redevelopment of brownfield
sites by granting tax incentives for those activities and by expediting the
environmental permit approval process for the construction of certain
facilities on brownfield sites. Referred to Senate Energy & Public
Utilities. Received
one hearing. SB 36 LIMITED HOME RULE -
(Schuler) To permit townships with a population of less than five thousand
in its unincorporated territory to adopt a limited home rule government under
certain conditions. Passed Senate 33 - 0. Passed House 96-0. Signed by governor 11/7/07 SB 38 THEATRICAL SMOKING - (Schuler) To allow smoking by theatrical performers during performances. Received five hearings in the Senate. SB 77 COMMERCIAL FISHING - (Grendell) To increase the license fees for commercial fishing, to revise the penalties for
violations of certain commercial fishing statutes, and to make other changes to
the law governing commercial fishing. Pass Senate 32
-0. Passed in House
72-25 (Amended). Signed by
governor 7/10/07. SB 78 GREAT LAKES COMPACT - (Grendell) To create the Great
Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact Task Force for the
purpose of determining whether Ohio should enter into the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact.
Referred to Senate Environment
& Natural Resources and received one hearing. SB 79 LICENSE PLATES - (Grendell) To establish "Horse
Power Ohio" license plates and to provide that money from the
contributions for the license plates be paid to Horse Power Ohio and used for
nonprofit equine programs. Referred to Senate Highways & Transportation and received one hearing. SB 90 FUEL QUALITY - (Grendell) To
authorize the Director of Agriculture to establish a motor fuel quality testing
programs. Amended into Transportation budget. SB 93 NUTRITION/FITNESS MONTH - (Miller,
D.) To designate May as "Nutrition and Physical Fitness
Month." Passed
Senate 31 -0. Amended into the Budget Bill. SB 95 RAW MILK - (Cates) To revise the statutes governing raw milk. Referred to Senate Agriculture and has received two hearing. SB 103 PROPERTY TITLES - (Mumper)
To require that a person have paid all taxes and special assessments due on
property while in their possession in order to use that period of possession to
establish title to the property through adverse possession. Referred to Senate State & Local
Government & Veteran Affairs. SB 105 HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION (Goodman)
To extend the homestead exemption to homeowners that have annual incomes of
fifty thousand dollars or less and to change the manner in which the homestead
exemption tax reduction is calculated for certain eligible homeowners. Referred to Snate Ways & Means & Economic Development, awaiting
first hearing. SB 107 HYBRID TAX CREDIT - (Mason) To create a tax credit for individuals who purchase a new hybrid vehicle. Referred to Senate Ways & Means & Economic Development. SB 122 TURNKPIKE
FUEL - (Miller, D.) To
establish a schedule for E85 blend fuel to be made
available at service stations located on the Ohio Turnpike and to permit the
Ohio Turnpike Commission to apply for grants made by the Department of
Development under the Alternative Fuel Transportation Grant Program. Referred
to Senate Highways & Transportation and has received one hearing. SB 125 HORSE WAGERING - (Stivers) To authorize wagering at
a track on horse races that are telecast via an instant racing system and to
levy a tax on amounts wagered in this manner. Passed Senate 25 -8.
Referred to House State Government & Elections and has received two
hearings. Gov. Strickland has promised to veto the bill. SB 128 CLIMATE COMMISSION -
(Miller, D.) To create the Ohio
Climate Commission for the purpose of studying the probable impacts that global
climate change will have on the state of Ohio and for the purpose of
recommending appropriate state responses to address global climate change and
problems likely to be associated with it. Referred
to Senate Environment & Natural Resources and has received one hearing. SB 135 NURSERY OPERATIONS - (Amstutz)
To exempt from license fees a person who is not a nurseryman, dealer, or
collector and who makes no more than $1,000 in sales of nursery stock during a
calendar year and to exempt from nursery stock inspection and certification a
person who is not a nurseryman, dealer, or collector and who makes no more than
$500 in sales of nursery stock. Referred
to Senate Agriculture and has received one hearing. SB 149 ANIMAL FACILITIES - (Roberts) To revise the law governing Concentrated animal feeding facilities. Referred to Senate Agriculture and received one hearing. SB
168 UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE -
(Miller, D.) To establish and
operate the Ohio Health Care Plan to provide universal health care coverage to
all Ohio residents. To Senate Health, human Services & Aging. Referred to Senate Health, Human Services & Aging and received one
hearing. SB 170 CONSERVANCY DISTRICTS - (Amstutz) To revise
the membership of the board of directors of a conservancy district that
includes all or parts of more than sixteen counties; to require the board of
directors of such a district rather than the conservancy court to perform
certain functions under the Conservancy Districts Law; to prohibit the levying
of an assessment by such a conservancy district under specified circumstances
and to make other changes concerning the levying of an assessment by such a
conservancy district. Referred to Senate
Environment & Natural Resources and has received three hearings. SB 182 ELECTION BY MAIL - (Cates) To allow a board of elections to conduct an election
by mail when no candidates will be on the ballot at that election. Referred to Senate State & Local
Government and Veterans Affairs committee and has received three hearings. SB 198 TURFGRASS WEEK
(Morano) designate the last week of May as "Ohio Turfgrass Week."
Reported out of
Senate Agriculture committee, awaiting floor vote. SB 198 RENEWABLE ENERGY PROPERTY - (Mason) To create tax
credits for investing in renewable energy property. Referred to Senate Ways & Means & Economic Development committee, awaiting first hearing. SB 200 SOLAR/WIND ENERGY - (Mason) To exempt sales of solar and wind energy devices from sales and use taxation. Referred to Senate Ways & Means & Economic Development committee, awaiting first hearing. SB 213 RENEWABLE ENERGY - (Mason)
To require the Director of Administrative Services to
ensure that a certain percentage of state agencies' total electricity purchases
are from renewable energy systems. Referred to Senate Energy & Public Utilities, awaiting first
hearing. SB 221 ENERGY POLICY
- (Schuler)
To revise state energy policy to address electric service price regulation,
establish alternative energy benchmarks for electric distribution utilities and
electric services companies, provide for the use of renewable energy credits,
establish energy efficiency standards for electric distribution utilities,
require greenhouse gas emission reporting and carbon dioxide control planning
for utility-owned generating facilities, authorize energy price risk management
contracts, and authorize for natural gas utilities revenue decoupling related
to energy conservation and efficiency. Passed by House and Senate. Signed by governor on
5/1/08. SB 260 - DEPORTATION CUSTODY - (Cates)
To provide that a board of county commissioners may direct a sheriff to take
custody of persons who are being detained for deportation or who are charged
with civil violations of immigration law and to expressly authorize state and
local employees and county sheriffs to render assistance to federal immigration
officials in the investigation and enforcement of federal immigration law. Amended and passed in the Senate. Referred to House State Government & Elections committee, and has received three hearings. SB 286 OPTICAL SCAN BALLOTS - (Cates) To clarify that an optical scan ballot with more than the proper number of selections for a particular office, issue, or question is invalidated only for that office, issue, or question; to permit midday collection and delivery to the board of elections of optical scan ballots that will be counted at a central location for the March 4, 2008, primary election; to generally prohibit the central counting of optical scan ballots; to terminate the provisions of this act authorizing the midday collection and delivery of optical scan ballots on May 1, 2008, by repealing section 3505.25 of the Revised Code on that date; and to declare an emergency. Passed by House and Senate. Signed by Gov. Strickland on 2/27/08. SB 291 GREAT LAKES COMPACT - (Grendell)
To ratify the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact and
to establish related requirements. Referred to Senate Environment & Natural Resources and has received six hearings. SB 299 EARLY VOTING - (Miller, D.)
To change the name of absent voter's ballots to early voting ballots. Referred to
State & Local Government & Veterans Affairs committee and has received
three hearings. SB 335 - ECONOMIC STIMULUS - (Carey)
To establish the Ohio Bioproducts Development Program
and Ohio Biomedical Development Program to be administered by the Third
Frontier Commission, to establish the Third Frontier Economic Stimulus Advisory
Board, to expand the economic development programs administered by the
Department of Development to include transportation logistics and distribution
infrastructure projects, to provide additional money for capital improvement
projects of local subdivisions and for highway capital improvement projects, to
modify the authority of the Ohio Coal Development Office, to administer coal
research and development projects, to provide for advanced energy projects
administered by the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, to establish the
Ohio Innovation Partnership Co-op/Internship Program, to extend the historical
building rehabilitation tax credit, limit credit amounts, require regional
distributive balance and economic effects to be considered, and to make an
appropriation. Referred to Senate Finance & Financial
Institutions committee and has received two hearings. Companion House bill, HB
554, has been signed by the governor. | |