Road repair House bill goes before state Senate

By Marc Kovac

Townships would benefit from the law change.

COLUMBUS — Legislation that would allow townships to pay for road repairs out of their general funds and reimburse employees for their families’ health insurance costs had its first hearing before a state Senate committee Wednesday.

House Bill 458, which passed the House before lawmakers recessed for the summer, could be headed for a floor vote during lawmakers’ lame-duck session.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Uecker, a Republican from southwestern Ohio, would enable townships to use any general revenue funds for road and bridge construction and repairs.

Under state law and a decades-old attorney general decision, townships are not allowed to use general revenue funds for those purposes.

According to an analysis by the state’s Legislative Service Commission, “general levy revenue of a county or township may be expended for current expenses but may not be expended for the construction, reconstruction, resurfacing, and repair of roads and bridges. Levies may be imposed specifically for road and bridge purposes, either with or without voter approval. Townships have the ability to transfer funds from the general fund to any other township fund ... but because of the above-mentioned limitation, such funds may not be expended for road and bridge construction and repair.”

HB 458 would remove that restriction and allow townships to use “any source of revenue in the general fund for road maintenance and repair,” according to testimony provided by Heidi Fought, director of governmental affairs for the Ohio Township Association.

The other part of the bill relates to townships’ reimbursement to employees for outside health insurance.

Under current law, townships are allowed to pay insurance premiums for their officers, employees and families.

The setup often ends up reducing townships costs, allowing employees to obtain less expensive health care coverage from other sources.

Fought cited a township in southwestern Ohio, where an employee was reimbursed about $1,500 in 2007 for premium costs. Had that individual enrolled in the township plan, the public cost would have exceeded $14,000 for the same period.

But townships have been socked by findings for recovery after audits revealed such reimbursements because state law does not currently provide the statutory authority to do so.

HB 458 would enable townships to reimburse employees’ out-of-pocket premium costs and reverse recent findings for recovery against townships that have done so.

mkovac@dixcom.com