Gov. John Kasich signed a two-year, $7.8 billion transportation budget into state law at the end of March.
Money from the bill will go to the Ohio Department of Transportation, Department of Public Safety, Public Works Commission and Development Services Agency. The 2018-19 budget will allocate $33 million a year to Ohio’s 61 public transit systems, $10 million more than current funding amounts.
Bowling Green City Council member Sandy Rowland serves on the council’s Planning, Zoning and Economic Development Committee as well as the Transportation and Safety Committee, and had mixed reviews of the bill.
“It is difficult for one to say the bill is good or bad for numerous reasons,” Rowland said. “Why were some of the changes that have been made even addressed?”
According to a Lima News article, this legislation will retain the wholesale level motor fuel tax with an exemption for compressed natural gas. The bill will also make it permissible for unattended vehicles to remain on if locked or located on residential property, allow for transaction fees to increase a maximum of $5.25, allow county commissioners to levy a $5 motor vehicle license fee to assist with transportation costs and permit watercraft operators to keep track of skiers using a mirror.
“For example, why include something such as a car can be left running if doors are locked and it is on its own property? This has absolutely nothing to do with transportation,” Rowland said. “It is obviously something some legislator was asked to do and it got slipped in something as important as the budget.”
Rowland added that generally speaking, bills such as this one typically have some good provisions and some bad.
“Our highways do need improved infrastructure. All states, not only Ohio have deteriorating and unsafe highway structures,” she said.
State Rep. Robert Mccolley said the bill “administers a substantial investment in Ohio’s infrastructure and local communities’ needs while defending the tax dollars of our citizens,” according to the Lima News article. Mccolley, who serves as chair of the Finance Subcommittee on Transportation and who was also one of the bill’s sponsors, added that the bill “provides innovative solutions for many of our state’s transportation and economic needs.”
State Rep. Ryan Smith said the spending “will create jobs and put Ohioans to work,” according to a Cleveland, OH article.
