TRANSPORTATION BILL

TRANSPORTATION BILL

How it affects you

The transportation budget Gov. John Kasich signed into law Wednesday includes more than $7 billion in spending on roads, bridges and related infrastructure projects and lots of other changes that will affect average Ohioans when the law takes effect in July. Here are a few:

Penalties: Do you have a motor vehicle that you haven’t registered yet? In about three months, that infraction will become a minor misdemeanor rather than a fourth-degree misdemeanor, meaning the penalty will be a little less.

Title issues: Are you up to your ears in paperwork related to a boat purchase? The transportation budget eliminates a requirement that the “make, manufacturer’s serial number ad horsepower of any inboard motor” be included on watercraft title applications, according to the Legislative Service Commission. But you’ll still have to provide the watercraft’s “make, year, length, series or model if available, body type and hull identification or serial number.”

Credit cards: The transportation budget requires your local Bureau of Motor Vehicle office to accept debit or credit cards as of July 1, 2016.

New drivers: Do you have a probationary driver’s license, and have you had it for less than a year? There will be new restrictions on when you can operate a vehicle, with prohibitions between midnight and 6 a.m. unless you’re accompanied by a parent or guardian or heading to an official school or religious event with written permission.