The business of government is one of the essential services that it is still open during the Ohio’s lockdown, and members of the Ohio General Assembly will be in Columbus this week to address the statewide response to the pandemic.

On March 23, 22 bills were introduced by members of the Ohio House of Representatives to address issues that have arisen as a result of the CORVID-19 outbreak. This follows the introduction of a bill that was introduced previous week.

These 22 bills address housing and family stability, protecting first responders, expediting response measures, and freeing up additional financial resources to respond to the crisis.

Here, we provide a brief summary of what several of these bills do. These are the bills which affect the pubic at large (several are more technical).  

• HB557 – Emergency Teleconference – Public Bodies (Sobecki): This bill would authorize public bodies to meet via teleconference and video conferences during a public health state of emergency.

• HB562 – Prohibit Evictions, Foreclosures During COVID-19 (Leland, Crossman): This bill would prohibit foreclosure activity and the eviction of residential and commercial tenants during the state of emergency declared regarding COVID-19, and to refer such proceedings caused by the state of emergency to mediation.

• HB564 – Prevent Utility Disruption During COVID-19 (Leland): This bill would prevent the disruption of utility services during the state of emergency declared regarding COVID-19.

• HB565 – Extend Income Tax Filing Deadline (Rogers, Crossman): This bill would extend the filing and payment dates for state, municipal, and school district income taxes by the same period as any federal income tax extension granted in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

(Note: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that the deadline for federal income taxes has been extended to July 15, 2020).

• HB566 – Increase Local Government Fund Distribution (Rogers, Crossman): This bill would increase the percentage of revenue to the General Revenue Fund distribution to the Local Government Fund.

(Note: The Local Government Fund (LGF) is the main tax revenue sharing mechanism Ohio has with its local governments dating back to 1934 when the state first implemented its first sales tax. The current percentage allocation to the LGF is 1.68%; this bill would increase the amount to 3.68%).

• HB567 – Partially Refundable Income Tax Credit (Rogers, Crossman): This bill would authorize a temporary, partially refundable, earned income tax credit equal to fifteen per cent of the federal credit allowed for the taxable year.

• HB574 – Transfer Funds – Unemployment Compensation Fund (Miller): This bill would transfer moneys to the Unemployment Compensation Special Administration Fund.

• HB576 – Suspend Homestead Interest Penalty, Foreclosures (Rogers, Crossman): This bill would temporarily abate the charging of interest and penalties against tax-delinquent homesteads and suspend tax foreclosure proceedings and tax certificate sales regarding such homesteads.

• HB578 – Homeless Shelters, Rent Assistance (Smith, K.): This bill would make an appropriation to support homeless shelters in the state and to provide emergency rental assistance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• HB581 – Address COVID-19 Concerns (Callender): This is a placeholder bill where likely all steps taken by the state to address the COVID-19 outbreak will be placed as an omnibus bill.

• HB582 – To Make Appropriations & Reappropriations (Callender): This is a placeholder bill to make corrections to the state budget resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak.

Many of these bills are also seeking to address issues that the Governor has raised but needs legislative approval to actually enact. We will keep a close eye on this bills and provide updates via out website as well as social media platforms.