Latest news with #HouseBill54
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Just a burden': New Ohio bill looks to eliminate E-Checks
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WJW) – State lawmakers are making a strong push to eliminate the federal requirement for E-Checks for cars four years old or older in seven northeast Ohio counties. Steve Demetriou (R-Bainbridge Township) and Bill Roemer (R-Richfield) recently re-introduced House Bill 115. It calls for drivers to be able to fill out a personal attestation form to confirm their vehicle is in good condition, rather than having to go to an E-check station. 'Tragic loss of life': Cause determined after man, woman, 3 kids found dead in Ohio home The two lawmakers will be continuing on with that standalone bill, which hasn't had a hearing yet, regardless of what happens with House Bill 54. House Bill 54, recently signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine, has the state's transportation budget in it, and part of that budget includes language from HB 115. Rep. Demetriou told Fox 8 that everything that he wanted to accomplish with the bill is also in HB 54, but HB 54 also requires approval from the federal government. If the Environmental Protection Agency deems the personal attestation forms as still meeting its clean air mandate for northeast Ohio, then the E-checks would no longer be required. Either way, Demetriou told Fox 8 they're going to continue to try and find a way to make the E-Check process easier or have it be eliminated it altogether. 'It's just a burden on [people]. It's really not making our air any cleaner or our lives any better, and people generally don't like it when the federal government tells them what to do, especially when it's not making a dent in their lives,' Demetriou said. 'I think between Sen. Bernie Moreno, Sen. Jon Husted, I think with the new administration, this is on people's radars in D.C., and that's really what it's going to take to end E-Check.' Erie County peace officers now allowed to use EpiPens Demetriou added that they asked the Ohio EPA to conduct a study on the effectiveness of E-Checks, but he would argue that making people drive to and from E-Check stations isn't doing anything to help the environment. He's not sure on the timing of when the federal EPA will look into the proposal to end E-Checks in Northeast Ohio. Fox 8 did request comments from the Ohio EPA. In a statement, a spokesperson directed us to their website and said: 'The E-Check program was developed in 1996 to help improve air quality by identifying cars and trucks with high emissions that might need repairs. Ohio EPA will implement and enforce any final changes that are signed into law.' In a statement sent to Fox 8, the director of Case Western Reserve University's School of Law's Environmental Law Clinic, Miranda Leppla, said eliminating E-Check would likely not have a major impact on the environment: 'Eliminating Ohio's E-Check program likely won't have a meaningful environmental impact, one way or the other. While vehicle emissions are a concern, the state's air quality issues are largely driven by coal-fired power plants and industrial pollution. E-check was a costly and inefficient program that placed the burden on individuals, particularly low-income residents, rather than addressing the major sources of pollution. Its removal is unlikely to change much.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. Lujan Grisham has signed more than half the legislation sent up by lawmakers
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed more than half of the legislation sent to her from the 2025 session. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed another 10 bills into law on Wednesday, including bills to require all schools to install heart defibrillators; adding additional crimes to the state's organized crime laws and approving a pilot project for grandparents raising grandchildren. House Bill 54 requires all public schools to develop plans for addressing cardiac emergencies and have electronic devices on site. The bill originally requested high schools to meet the requirements, but lawmakers amended it to include all schools. High schools are required to install automated external defibrillators by the 2026 school year, and elementary schools must comply by 2027. Senate Bill 70 adds additional crimes that qualify for racketeering charges, including dog and cockfighting, human trafficking, sexual exploitation of children, criminal sexual penetration; criminal sexual contact and bringing contraband into prisons and jails. House Bill 252 develops a $4 million dollar pilot project for the Aging and Long Term Services Department to provide funding for grandparents or next-of-kin raising children. The bill will address 50 families in five to seven counties. Lujan Grisham has signed 128 bills — about 65% — of the 195 bills the Legislature passed, and vetoed two bills. That leaves 67 bills pending, including the $10.8 billion budget funding the state government in House Bill 2. Lujan Grisham has until Friday to approve or veto bills. Any legislation not signed by the April 11 deadline will not go into law, a move called a pocket veto. Lawmakers unanimously passed a measure to remove the governor's pocket veto power in House Joint Resolution 2. Voters will have the chance to vote on the constitutional change in 2026, unless officials call a special election before then. Here's a full list of the bills signed into law on Wednesday: House Bill 6: IRB Project Minimum Wage House Bill 20: Technology & Innovation Division Senate Bill 59: Public Works Minimum Wage Definitions House Bill 54: Defibrillators In Every High School House Bill 532: Student Water Safety Guidance Senate Bill 070: Add Racketeering Crimes Senate Bill 168: Travel Insurance Act House Bill 172: New Mexico Red & Green Chile Month House Bill 218: Tax Changes House Bill 252: Kinship Caregiver Support Pilot Program
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Contentious Boston Road interchange mandate repealed; residents rejoice, traffic plan moves ahead
[Watch previous FOX 8 News coverage in the player above.] COLUMBUS, Ohio (WJW) — With enactment of the state's new transportation budget, a contentious proposal to build a new interchange between Brunswick and Strongsville appears to have stalled out. Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday signed into law House Bill 54, the state's two-year transportation budget. It repealed a provision in the state's last biennial transportation budget specifically designed to bring a new interchange to Interstate 71, between exits 225 and 231, intended to relieve traffic congestion in the area. US issues new travel advisory for The Bahamas State Sen. Tom Patton, R-Strongsville, who's been working on the new interchange plan for years — and installed it in the last transportation budget bill in 2022 — said he was 'disappointed and confused' by its reversal. But across the Medina County line, residents rejoiced. The plan would have razed dozens of occupied homes in Brunswick's Boston Road area through eminent domain, turning a 'dense' residential area into a commercial corridor, said Nicholas Hanek, Brunswick City Council president. He said he thinks it was the dogged opposition from hundreds of residents, including a grassroots group that appeared at city council meetings in both Brunswick and Strongsville and testified before the legislature, that 'turned of the tide' toward the plan's undoing. 'There were people who got to sleep last night and not be afraid of losing their home for the first time in two years,' Hanek said. 'This is a really remarkable thing to have happened. … This is a situation where government worked.' The interstate's six-mile span between Brunswick and Strongsville is the largest distance in the entire interstate system between two urban areas, Patton told FOX 8 News in 2023. The congestion sometimes causes I-71 to back up to the turnpike exit. The interstate's state Route 82 ramp also has one of the highest accident rates in the region, Patton said. The project would have been partially funded with state highway safety money. After several years in the works, it was added to the transportation budget in order to expedite it, he said. But were it to have gone ahead, Brunswick would have been on the hook for widening the area around Boston Road to six lanes — which would have disturbed a jet fuel pipeline running along the roadway — and the safety of what would essentially be a new commercial area in the city, Hanek said. He said the interchange plan wouldn't have solved traffic congestion on state Route 82 — since the proposed interchange was too far south — and may have actually caused more slowdowns on I-71. It also wouldn't have covered Brunswick's costs. 'By all accounts, and even a conservative financial projection, it would have ruined the entire budget of the city of Brunswick,' he said. 1 hospitalized, 1 in custody after shooting in Shaker Heights library The latest state transportation budget instead mandates a traffic study in that same area — along I-71, bounded by U.S. Route 42 to the north and west, state Route 303 to the south and West 130th Street to the east — to find ways to make traffic smoother. That study started in 2024 and must be completed by the end of 2026, under the new law. Patton said the traffic congestion isn't exclusive to Brunswick. Since the interchange plan's defeat, more complaints to his office have come from residents of Brunswick than Strongsville, he said. He said he now plans to shift his focus to other issues in his district. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Speed cameras banned in Ohio counties, townships
BOSTON TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WJW) – Counties and townships across Ohio can no longer use speed enforcement cameras. The ban comes with the governor's signature on an $11 billion transportation budget bill, but it does not prevent cities and villages from continuing to use them. Former coach accused of sexual conduct with teen student The news comes less than five months after Boston Township in Summit County started using the cameras. The township, which extends from Boston Mills Ski Resort south to just above Blossom Music Center and from Richfield east to Cuyahoga Falls, insists the cameras were not used to bring in a cash windfall. 'Last month, February, not March, we had maybe fifty tickets issued, that's it, this is not a big thousand tickets a month thing,' said Board of Trustees Chairperson Amy Anderson, who has lived in the township all of her life. 'I can remember four Fatalities on Kendall Park Road, and it's not a big road; speed was a part of them,' she told Fox 8 News. Retired Beachwood officer facing misdemeanor charge: I-Team 'This was just one more tool that we had to try to get people going the speed limit and keep everybody safe,' said Trustee Randy Bergdorf, recalling a high-speed pursuit near the ski resorts that police ended because it threatened cyclists and others using the parks. 'It was just one other method. They were still doing the traditional pull them over but we had another option to try to help with the safety.' The objection was written into the bill by Ohio Senator Al Cutrona of Canfield in Mahoning County. 'My constituents in my district, my neck of the state, are very frustrated with this type of practice that has been going on,' Cutrona said. 'It has nothing to do with public safety and it's nothing more than a money grab, so I wanted to be able to change that,' he told Fox 8 News on Tuesday. How much rain we could see from multiple systems The ban was added to House Bill 54, a lengthy budget bill in which one simple line addresses the cameras, on page 96 of the 227-page document. 'No county, township, or representative of a county or township shall utilize a traffic law photo monitoring device to detect and enforce traffic law violations,' he said. What frustrates trustees here, however, is that the cameras are not banned in cities and villages. That includes the village of Peninsula, in Bostown Township, where the use of speed cameras has been the focus of harsh criticism. FOX 8's I-Team revealed how the village was issuing thousands of camera enforcement tickets. 'The Ohio constitution has a provision in there that we call home rule, which would prevent us from being able to legislate something in those cities,' said Cutrona. Summit County inmate dies following medical emergency The Township contracts with the village of Peninsula to do its camera enforcement. Bergdorf is also concerned that the ban was, what he calls, a 'last-second' add to the budget bill giving them almost no time to provide testimony arguing against it. 'You couldn't even, if you wanted to, get down to Columbus and testify in person and we barely got written testimony in,' he told Fox 8 News. The senator disagrees, saying he started discussing the ban in previous legislative sessions. All parties involved agree on one fact, insisting they do not advocate for anyone to speed or to drive dangerously. But the trustees insist their use of the portable cameras does not add a windfall to the township's coffers. It helps compensate the officers who are patrolling the roads in a township where a large amount of the property is a national park. US issues new travel advisory for The Bahamas 'Obviously, when you are trying to police the roads, it has to be paid for and our situation out here is 92% of the community is tax exempt, so there's not a lot of revenue,' Bergdorf said. '50 tickets are not going to make or break the township, so the money isn't a factor,' said Anderson, who is not yet sure if they will have any legal remedy to challenge the ban. 'You know, frankly, if its a conversation they want to continue to have, we can always have that. Its called the Ohio Revised Code, you can always revise it and make changes,' Cutrona said. 'I don't know if there is a single one of my constituents who feels these are necessary.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State sets $100K pay rate for new leadership position held by Plummer
Mar. 21—Ohio lawmakers used the state's transportation budget Wednesday to set a salary for the newly-created leadership position of House speaker assistant pro tempore, held by local Rep. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp. The position, created for the first time in January, will carry an annual salary of $99,904 in 2025, according to the legislature's nonpartisan analysis and first reported by That salary, like all lawmaker salaries, will rise at a rate of 1.75% per year through 2028. The new position came at the behest of new House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, who told reporters Wednesday that it was important for him to expand the 99-member House's leadership team. "Ohio is one state that has the fewest leadership positions (in its legislature)," Huffman told reporters Wednesday. "In fact, even with the ones we have now, we're below average in terms of number of leadership positions." Plummer was voted into the position by his peers in January. On Wednesday, he abstained from the vote that would raise his pay. When reached for comment Wednesday, Plummer directed this outlet to Huffman. "The Speaker will address it. It's his program," he said. Aside from creating the assistant speaker pro tempore position, Huffman doubled the number of House majority whips from two to four. The bill passed Wednesday reflects the pay appropriations for those new leadership positions, too. Under the new setup, the assistant speaker pro tempore is third-in-command in the Republican leadership structure, following the House Speaker and the Speaker Pro Tempore. General members of the House and Senate will receive a base salary of $72,343 in 2025. Ohio law then grants members extra stipends for extra responsibilities: committee chairs receive $9,000 while committee vice-chairs and ranking members receive $6,750. Leadership positions work similarly. Here's the House's new 2025 pay structure, according to the state's nonpartisan Legislative Services Commission. — House Speaker: $112,767 — Speaker Pro Tempore: $102,890 — Minority Leader: $102,890 — Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore: $99,904 — Majority Floor Leader: $96,917 — Assistant Minority Leader: $93,938 — Assistant Majority Floor Leader: $90,954 — Majority Whip (Four members): $84,988 — Minority Whip: $84,988 — Assistant Minority Whip: $75,683 — General member: $72,343 The pay, allocated through House Bill 54, was approved unanimously by the Senate and near-unanimously in the House Wednesday. The bill now heads to the governor's desk for final approval. ------ For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It's free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening. Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
