The 135th Ohio General Assembly completed its work on Wednesday, December 18, passing a flurry of bills throughout the day and into the night.

Among the most notable bills to be approved was House Joint Resolution 8 (HJR8), which will place before Ohio voters on May 6, 2025 a ballot measure on the issuance of bonds to support infrastructure development around the state. You can learn more about HJR8 and its companion bill SJR4 on the blog we posted earlier this month.

Other bills sent to the Governor during the marathon session include:

House Bill 315: What began life as a bill to make changes to township law was amended to be the official Christmas Tree bill for the conclusion of the 135th General Assembly. The bill includes a number of changes including:

• Brownfield Remediation Program - The bill makes a number of changes to the BRP which do not take effect until July 1, 2025. This includes eliminating the stipulation that the lead entity must be a grant award recipient; clarifying that the lead entity means a county, township, city, port authority, conservation district, park district, county land bank, or a for-profit organization; eliminates the need for a 25% match for unspent grant funds that were not used from the county set-aside fund.

• Housing Technical Assistance Fund – The bill allocates $1,500,000 to assist political subdivisions seeking to modernize zoning regulations and procedures.

• Allows farmland to continue to be valued at its current agricultural use value (CAUV) for property tax purposes if it becomes or recently became a H2Ohio conservation project.

• Requires that, when a political subdivision or land bank acquires abandoned land subject to a tax foreclosure proceeding before it is offered for sale, the subdivision or land bank must do the following: Sell the property and; Keep a record of the property’s previous tax delinquency, foreclosure costs, and the costs incurred by the subdivision or land bank while holding the property. If the sale price exceeds those total costs, the excess proceeds will go to the owner or, eventually, the county landbank.

• Allows the tax credit for investments in Ohio opportunity zones to be claimed against the financial institutions tax, insurance companies tax, and foreign insurance companies tax. Applies to applications filed 90 days after the bill’s 90-day effective date.

House Bill 331: The bill requires an audit of all villages in the state every 10 years after the completion of the U.S. Census to make sure the village provides at least five of the following services:

• Police

• Fire

• Garbage Collection

• Water & Sewer Services

• Emergency Medical Services

• Road Maintenance

• Park Services or other recreational services

• Human Services

• Public Library established and operated solely by the village

If a village is unable to meet those requirements, it would automatically trigger a ballot measure on whether or not to dissolve the village at the next general election. Dissolved villages would revert to the surrounding township should the dissolution be approved by voters.

A number of other bills were also passed on the final day of session. You can learn more about those bills and the impact that they will have if approved by the Governor here.

With the 135th General Assembly concluded, all other bills which have been pending in the session are now dead and will need to be re-introduced in the next General Assembly.

Recently elected and re-elected lawmakers will be sworn-in as members of the 136th Ohio General Assembly on Monday, January 6, 2025. The opening session will see the official election the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, President of the Senate, and other members of leadership. Legislation will begin to be introduced in mid-January, around the same time that committee assignments are made.

Governor Mike DeWine will need to submit lawmakers his proposed two-year operating budget for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 by Monday, February 3.

GOPC will be hosting three webinars in early 2025 focused on our policy priorities for the next General Assembly, our biannual budget 101 session, as well as an update on our brownfield advocacy work. Space will be limited, so be sure to register now.