As the Ohio General Assembly closes out work on the current session, lawmakers are already looking ahead to 2025 by working to place a ballot measure before voters in the May 2025 primary election, scheduled for May 6, 2025.
The Senate has already approved Senate Joint Resolution 4 (SJR4). If approved by the Ohio House and signed by the Governor, SJR4 would ask Ohio voters for the reauthorization to borrow money for the Ohio Public Works Commission’s State Capital Improvement Program.
First established in 1987, the State Capital Improvement Program has been an invaluable resource to the state and its communities. At a time when it is hard to find anything that we can agree on, the State Capital Improvement Program has been an exception, demonstrated by the faith voters have placed in the program. When it was last up for reauthorization in 2014, 65% of those voting approved the reauthorization of bonds to support the program.
As an advocacy organization, GOPC works closely with counties, cities, towns and villages across the state of Ohio. As champions of Ohio’s legacy cities, we know they face unique opportunities and challenges due to their loss of population and industry. We also know they are eager to build on their pasts to “reinvent” themselves and chart new futures.
The State Capital Improvement Program provides opportunities to these communities to aid the work they are engaged in every day revitalizing their downtowns, residential neighborhoods, waterfronts, and business parks. For example, State Capital Improvement Program funds have helped the city of Hamilton return a huge papermill to productive use as an indoor sports facility. Spooky Nook and the surrounding streets and new sanitation systems serving the 1.2 million square foot facility is generating millions of dollars in new economic activity in the city’s downtown.
Likewise, cities and towns are working to create local roadway and mobility infrastructure that boost safety and convenience, support healthy lifestyles, and create vibrant places where people want to live, shop, and work.
Cities like Mansfield in Richland County are utilizing funds from the Public Works Commission to return one-way streets to two-way traffic, reconfigure stormwater management systems to eliminate flooding, and develop and revitalize their downtown corridor in ways that will make the area a more welcoming and pedestrian-friendly epicenter of a vibrant, energized community.
SJR4 is currently up for consideration in the Ohio House of Representatives, which introduced their own version of the proposal, House Joint Resolution 8 (HJR8). As long as either resolution is approved by both chambers before February 5, 2025, the measure will appear on the ballot.
You can learn more about SJR4 and HJR8 on our Bill Tracking Page on our website