Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee gave final approval to a revised state budget that diverges significantly from the plan passed in April by the Ohio House. Senators are expected to give final approval on the bill later today.
The most significant change to a GOPC issue is a proposal to alter who can apply for funding from the Ohio Brownfield Remediation and Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Programs. Under the changes included in the Senate-proposed budget, county Land Banks would be the lead applicant and funder in counties where they operate. Ohio currently has 66 county land banks across the state. In the counties without land banks, county commissioners would recommend to the Department of Development a lead applicant on behalf of the county.
Further changes restrict who can be a sub-recipient of the funding, designating local governments, nonprofit organizations, community development corporations, regional planning commissions, county land banks, and community action agencies as such recipients. This language appears to exclude private entities from being sub-recipients of funds in the absence of a development agreement with one of the other designated entities listed above.
GOPC Concerns with Bill
GOPC is concerned that the use of a designated party as the lead applicant for all grant requests will significantly slow the process for submitting applications, and have an adverse effect on smaller counties abilities to apply for funds under the programs “first come, first serve” set-up. We are also concerned that private entities, who are already required under the existing program to have a letter of support from a local government to apply for funds, are not listed as designated sub-recipients. This could greatly impact the work of remediation statewide. In some instances, private entities are the appropriate applicant to acquire brownfields, take on the risk , and complete necessary remediation and redevelopment to put the site into productive use.
Remaining Steps to Budget Process
The passage of the bill later today in the Senate is not the end of the process of enacting Ohio’s state budget. Next week, the Ohio House of Representatives, who approved a budget plan in April that provided $350 million for the program with only a slight change in the funding allocation over the next two years, will be asked to concur to the changes made in the budget by the Ohio Senate. GOPC is asking the House to reject the Senate changes and insist on use of the House-passed language related to the Brownfield and Building Demolition programs. We see the programs, which were able to allocate $500 million in just one year, as an overwhelming success and not needing any significant changes as are being proposed in the Senate-version of the budget.
As we did last week, GOPC is strongly urging supporters to contact members of the House of Representatives and urge them to reject the changes made to HB33 related to the Brownfield and Demolition programs.
Other Changes:
Last week, we also reported on proposed changes that would prohibit new CRA/TIF and Opportunity Zone districts from applying tax abatements to rental properties for the next 5 years. We are pleased to report that those changes were removed in the omnibus amendment that was introduced yesterday. Thank you to all who reached out to members of the Ohio Senate and requested these proposals be removed. This will have a very positive impact in the development of market rate and affordably-priced housing throughout the state of Ohio.