Ohio’s two-year transportation budget (House Bill 23), containing billions for road and highway projects, is heading to a legislative conference committee and expected to emerge and land on Governor Mike DeWine’s desk for his signature by the end of March.
House Bill 23 originally cleared the Ohio House as a $12.6 billion measure on March 1 with a 74-21 vote. Among proposals inserted by the House to the Governor’s original introduced version were:
- A $1 billion rural highway fund designed to improve worker commutes in rural communities
- A reduction to the annual registration fee for owners of hybrid plug-in vehicles
- A ban on township and counties from instituting traffic camera programs to issue tickets for speeding or running red lights
- Permission for the DeWine Administration to enter into an agreement with the federal government to allow for enhanced driver’s licenses and ID cards to enter Canada, Mexico or Caribbean countries without need a passport
- Provisions designed to improve rail safety in the wake of the East Palestine train derailment.
The Ohio Senate considered a number of their own changes to the budget, including a measure debated but ultimately not included that would have increased from 55 mph to 60 mph the maximum speed limit on two-lane highways. The Senate’s version also increases total spending to $13.5 billion, and removed the House’s rural highway fund provision, the traffic camera ban, the enhanced driver’s licenses/ID cards provision, and the registration fee cut for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Senators also agreed on House language to give Amtrak the statutory authority to expand rail service in Ohio, and agreed with, but altered, the House measure requiring all trains in Ohio to have a crew of at least two people.
Another major difference in the Senate version relates to force account thresholds, or the levels at which local governments must competitively bid public projects. The House version set the thresholds based upon the scope of work, while the Senate version changed this to allow local governments to set their own force account limits or use an increased limit indexed to inflation.
Other key provisions of the budget include: $10 million for a transformative transportation improvement study, increased funding to municipalities, townships, and counties, $3.6 billion for replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati and to help build a second nearby bridge, and language allowing for permanent registrations for non-commercial trailers.
The Senate version of HB 23 passed that chamber unanimously 30-0 before returning to the Ohio House where they voted to not concur on the Senate changes 79-16. House Bill 23 now goes to a conference committee comprised of majority and minority members from both the House and Senate to resolve all differences between the two versions.