Ohio Bans Residency Requirements and Incentives
Before the Ohio General Assembly recessed for summer break, legislators passed HB 180 which prohibits a public authority from requiring a contractor to employ a certain percentage of individuals from the geographic area for the construction. The bill effectively bans residency requirements and incentives. The ban applies to public authorities that include the state; county, township, municipal corporation, or any other political subdivision; public agency, authority, board, commission, instrumentality, or special district of the state.
During the debate, CEA voiced its support to KEEP residency programs and the importance for local control of these issues.
CEA testified against the legislation in both chambers and worked with Cleveland City Council, the Growth Partnership, and the City of Cleveland to also try to exempt Cuyahoga County from these bills. Senator Tom Patton offered the amendment in the Senate. Representative Marty Sweeney offered an exemption amendment in the House. Unfortunately, the amendments were not added into the bills.
Proponents of the issue worked two pieces of legislation through the General Assembly, SB 152 and HB 180.
HB 180 passed the Ohio House 61-31 and passed the Ohio Senate 23-10. It was signed by the Governor on 5/31/2016 and will become effective in 90 days.
This ended a very prolonged process in which residency requirements were placed into multiple budgets to eventually be pulled out. Language banning PLA’s was also attached to a version of the residency bills which caused the bill to stall in the Senate.
If you are interested in finding out more on HB 180 and its provisions, please click on the information below which includes the analysis of the bill and the text of HB 180.
You can also receive more information by contacting Glen Shumate at [email protected].