House Passes State Budget Bill with OMA-backed Amendments

Facing a continuing deterioration of revenues, the House this week passed a budget bill, House Bill 49, that will likely be revisited through the Senate and conference committee processes through June. Income tax receipts lagged expectations by about $100 million in April. That continues a downward trend for the year.

The House accepted a large omnibus amendment before passing the bill. Included in the omnibus is an amendment sought by the OMA and its business group partners: eliminating a proposed fee on businesses that file municipal income taxes online through the Ohio Business Gateway. Yes, a fee to pay taxes. OMA’s testimony urged the elimination of the fee as well as restoration of the governor’s proposal to streamline municipal tax collection.

A second amendment revised the governor’s proposed elimination of the “throwback” rule. The proposed language was detrimental to any manufacturer that sold tangible personal property from a township. The successful amendment revised the proposal to ensure manufacturers located in townships would not be harmed by the law change.

The bill made several other tax minor tax changes that can be reviewed in this comparison document.  5/4/2017