Lawmakers reach transportation budget agreement

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Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D-Lisbon)

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio would pursue federal funding to establish passenger rail along major cities, and motorists wouldn’t have to worry that cameras would catch them speeding in highway construction zones, under a two-year transportation budget deal reached by state lawmakers Monday.

The nearly $10 billion spending plan is expected to pass the House and Senate today and be signed by Gov. Ted Strickland.

The bill contains both state and federal dollars, including nearly $800 million in federal stimulus money that would go to roads, bridges, ports and rail projects across Ohio.

Lawmakers canceled public meetings planned over the weekend, but legislative staffers met and leadership worked out details over the phone.

The deal also would enable unemployed Ohioans who have exhausted state and emergency federal benefits to begin receiving up to 20 weeks of extended federal benefits.

Lawmakers agreed to include the additional benefits in the transportation bill as a means of delivering them more quickly to the jobless.

If $250 million in federal money is granted to the state to establish passenger rail between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, the state Controlling Board, an arm of the Legislature that authorizes certain types of state spending, would have to give approval before construction begins.

But in a Democratic compromise to Republican concerns, the rail plan would have to receive affirmative votes from two members of the Democratic-controlled House and two members of the Republican-controlled Senate.

Generally, the Democratic-controlled board approves spending projects by a simple majority vote.

Republicans, skeptical about the rail plan’s future costs and whether enough Ohioans will ride trains, originally wanted the full Legislature to have a say before construction could begin.

Republicans were successful in getting Democrats to rid the bill of two policies that they opposed. Democrats had wanted a pilot project putting speed cameras in highway construction zones, and a change in law to enable authorities to pull over motorists who aren’t wearing their seat belts.

Current law only enables law enforcement to cite motorists for failing to wear their seat belts if they’ve already been pulled over for another offense.

“If this was a good idea, you know, we would have done this years ago,” state Sen. Tom Patton, a Republican from Strongsville, said of the seat belt law proposal. Ohio would have received $28 million from the federal government had it made the change.

The state’s transportation budget and transportation-related projects funded by federal stimulus money will combine for $2.8 billion in spending on bridges, roads, ports and rail construction in Ohio during the next 15 months.

Leaders say it’s the most the state has ever spent on such projects in such a short timeframe.