Note: Select "full text" at end of bill title to view the codified version of these acts. You may also view supporting documents that include all versions of bills, bill analyses and fiscal impact notes. This list includes bill subject to whole or partial vetoes by the governor. Carefully read all disclaimers that appear in documents not published by Gongwer News Service, Inc.

HB 1 JUVENILE RELEASE (Williams) Creates a Release Authority in the Department of Youth Services to grant releases to certain children committed to the Department, establishes a procedure for the judicial release of certain children in the Department's custody and establishes an Office of Victims' Services in the Release Authority Effective: November 25, 1997 (Certain sections later) Full text

HB 2 GANG LAWS (Garcia) Establishes the offense of participating in a criminal gang, enhances the penalty imposed upon an offender or delinquent child who commits a felony that is an offense of violence while participating in a criminal gang, prescribes procedures for the forfeiture and disposition of property relating to participating in a criminal gang and modifies the juvenile fingerprinting laws. Effective: August 10, 1998 (Certain sections January 1, 1999) Full text

HB 5 FELONY OFFENSES (Taylor) Expands the offense of murder by prohibiting a person from causing the death of another as a proximate result of committing or attempting to commit a felony offense of violence and eliminates provisions regarding proof of specific intent and the use of interference in an aggravated murder trial. Effective: June 30, 1998 Full text

HB 18 DEATH PENALTY/RECORDS CHECK (Taylor) Requires the Attorney General to annually prepare and file with specified individuals a capital case status report and modifies the law requiring criminal records checks of applicants for positions with specified entities that involve the provision of direct care to an older adult by permitting in specified circumstances the conditional employment of an applicant for such a position who is referred by an employment service, by waiving the criminal records check requirement under the "personal character standards" exception for a person who is referred by an employment service but has been convicted of a disqualifying offense, and by making available to persons involved in a case dealing with employment or unemployment benefits of the applicant the report of such a criminal records check. Effective: January 30, 1998 Full text

HB 22 SUBDIVISION PLATS (Wise) Eliminates the requirement that subdivision plats in certain unincorporated territory be approved by a city planning commission or by a village planning commission, platting commissioner or legislative authority before being recorded and requires plat approval instead by a county or regional planning commission and permits platting rules to require proof of compliance with all applicable township zoning resolutions. Effective: Oct. 21, 1997 Full text

HB 25 TATTOOING (Lucas) Regulates the businesses that offer tattooing or body piercing services. Effective: October 14, 1997 (Certain sections later) Full text

HB 26 SANITARY DISTRICTS (Lucas) Alters the composition and method of appointment of the members of the boards of directors of certain existing sanitary districts organized to provide a water supply for domestic, municipal and public use, limits the compensation paid and benefits provided to board members; requires members of boards of directors of those sanitary districts to file a financial disclosure statement with the Ohio Ethics Commission; subjects all sanity districts to certain financial certification requirements prior to expending moneys; and eliminates the requirement that the Public Utilities Commission issue certificates of public convenience and necessity for certain private sewage disposal systems and for sewage disposal system companies and waterworks companies that are no public utilities. Effective May 6, 1998 Full text

HB 27 JACKSON COUNTY JUDGE (Carey) Changes the status of the judge of the Jackson County Municipal Court from part-time to full-time, changes the date on or before which the Elected Officials Compensation Commission must file its recommendations for adjusting the salries of elected officials, and declares an emergency. Effective: March 31, 1997 Full text

HB 32 SEX OFFENSES (Reid) Increases criminal penalties for gross sexual imposition when the offender administers a controlled substance to the victim surreptitiously or by force, threat of force, or deception, makes sexual battery a third degree felony in all circumstances, modifies the definition of sexual conduct, clarifies that a court must impose a mandatory term upon an offender who has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to rape, and requires that the mandatory prison term for rape when the offender administered a controlled substance to the victim surreptitiously or by force, threat of force, or deception must be at least five years. Effective: March 10, 1998 Full text

HB 34 ENERGY CONSERVATION (Reid) Designates the third Friday in March as School Energy Conservation Day in Ohio. Effective: March 10, 1998 Full text

HB 37 HARASSMENT BY INMATE (Bateman) Creates the offense of harassment of an employee by an inmate, authorizes the Office of Criminal Justice Services to make an earlier reimbursement to counties for the costs of prosecuting certain serious felonies and declares an emergency. Effective: June 11, 1997 Full text

HB 39 VEHICLE TITLE TAXES (Mottley) Authorizes the clerks of courts of common pleas to accept additional methods of payment for motor vehicle title taxes and establishes procedures to ensure collection of the funds. Effective: September 16, 1997 Full text

HB 49 STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS (Schuck) Extends to 20 years the time within which certain serious offenses may be prosecuted. Effective: March 9, 1999 Full text

HB 55 BEHAVIORAL CONNECTIONS (Gardner) Authorizes the conveyance of the state's interest in the restrictions and reversions imposed by specified instruments to Behavioral Connections in Wood County, Inc., an Ohio nonprofit corporation; specifies permissible research uses for land previously conveyed by the state to the City of Cincinnati and limits the application of the reversion clause in the legislation that conveyed that land; and declares an emergency. Effective: March 21, 1997 Full text

HB 56 SCHOOL CONTRACTS (Callender) Permits a school board to enter into administrative contracts with nonlicensed employees who are considered to be supervisory or management level employees for the purposes of collective bargaining, permits a school district that has been declared to be in a state of fiscal emergency to issue, following approval of the district voters of a new operating levy and approval of such school district's financial planning and supervision commission, securites not to exceed ten years for the purpose of restructuring or refinancing its outstanding debt obligations, and declares an emergency. Effective: March 31, 1997 Full text

HB 93 STALKING ORDERS (Reid) Authorizes the issuance of anti-stalking protection orders upon the filing of a complaint that alleges the commission of an assault offense or a violation of certain municipal ordinances. Effective: December 31, 1997 Full text

HB 97 LAND CONVEYANCE (Salerno) Authorizes the conveyance to two parcels of state-owned real estate located in Franklin County to the City of Columbus for construction of the West Columbus Local Protection Project, a.k.a. the Franklinton Floodwall and authorizes the conveyance of any additional parcels of real estate necessary for the completion of the project and declares an emergency. Effective: April 22, 1997 Full text

HB 98 GAMBLING (Mottley) Requires legislative validation of a compact between the Governor and an Indian tribe authorizing gaming, or of a grant by the Governor of authority for an Indian tribe to place land in trust to be used for gaming and requires that such a compact contain an expiration date. Effective: October 14, 1997 Full text

HB 101 BOAT DOCKING (Kasputis) Authorizes the owner of a private dock to order the towing of any vessel found moored, anchored or tied there without permission. Effective: September 16, 1997 Full text

HB 106 SCHOOL OFFICIAL ASSAULT (Winkler) Makes assault a felony of the fifth degree when the victim is a school teacher or administrator or a school bus operator and the assault occurs on school premises, in a school building, or, under certain circumstances, outside of school premises. Effective: November 21, 1997 Full text

HB 108 RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS (Tiberi) Removes the limitations on a person's right to hold the assets in, and the payments from, an individual retirement account or an individual retirement annuity exempt from execution, garnishment or attachment and modifies the Retail Installment Sales Act with respect to the enforceability of retail installment contracts. Effective: March 22, 1999 Full text

HB 113 BAKERY REGULATION (Terwilleger) Requires that a bakery that is an integrated portion of an establishment licensed as a food service operation be regulated only under the law governing food service operations, rather than being regulated concurrently under the law governing bakeries and creates the Food Safety Council. Effective: November 12, 1997 Full text

HB 117 FAIR PROPERTY (Terwilleger) Removes the requirement that, in certain counties in which there exists a county agricultural society or an independent agricultural society and in which the board of county commissioners appropriates more than $50,000 to be expended in one year for certain expenses related to fairs, the question of a tax levy be put on the ballot in the county before the expenditure can be made, authorizes the board of any county to put on the ballot the question of a tax levy for purchasing, maintaining, or improving real estate on which to hold fairs, and provides that such societies are not required to make payments to the Ohio Standardbred Development Fund from moneys paid by harness horse permit holders. Effective: September 3, 1997 Full text

HB 122 CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES (Myers) Prohibits the preparation of drugs for sale and delays, from July 1, 1998, to July 1, 1999, the date on which persons who dispense or distribute nitrous oxide will be required to record on a separate card each transaction involving such a dispensation or distribution. Effective: July 29, 1998 Full text

HB 141 MOTOR VEHICLES (Cates) Provides that if a person has an outstanding arrest warrant issued by a municipal court or county court, the person may not be eligible to be issued a certificate of registration to a motor vehicle in that person's name or a driver's license. Effective: September 3, 1997 (Certain sections effective six months later) Full text

HB 143 VEHICLE REPAIR BOARD (Metzger) Requires the registration of motor vehicle collision repair operators and creates the Board of Motor Vehicle Repair Registration. Effective: December 18, 1997 Full text

HB 144 LICENSE FEE EXEMPTION (Metzger) Exempts veterans who have a service-connected disability rated at 100% by the Veterans' Administration from payment of any application or service fees when obtaining a driver's license or motorized bicycle license, or fee for laminating such a license. Effective: October 14, 1997 Full text

HB 147 FREE CREDIT/SUPERINTENDENT (Whalen) Allows certain senior citizens to receive tuition-free college credit, adds two gubernatorial appointees of the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority, permits mid-year adjustments in the price of tuition credits when the Authority determines necessary to ensure the actuarial soundness of the Ohio Tuition Trust Fund, permits the executive director of the Authority to provide mid-year actuarial evaluations for the fund, removes the limitation on the pay of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, changes the name of the "Information, Learning and Technology Authority" to the "Ohio SchoolNet Commission", extends the deadline for the Ohio Schools Technology Implementation Task Force report, and continues the membership of that task force until the report is issued. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 151 CRIMINAL SENTENCING (Thomas) Expands the offense of aggravated robbery to specifically include disarming or attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer, increases the penalty for resisting arrest when the offender causes physical harm to a law enforcement officer or brandishes a deadly weapon, expands the types of law enforcement officers within the scope of the "killing a peace officer" aggravating circumstance for capital offenses, and exempts under certain circumstances county and municipal prosecutors, their assistants, and secret service officers appointed by a county prosecutor from the offenses of illegal conveyance of a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance in a courthouse and illegal possession or control of a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance in a courthouse. Effective: September 16, 1997 Full text

HB 158 BROKER LIEN RIGHTS (Schuler) Creates lien rights for real estate brokers on certain commercial property, provides for the perfection, enforcement, release or satisfaction, and extinguishment of liens, establishes lien priority, and permits the awarding of attorney's fees and costs to prevailing parties. Effective: August 28, 1997 Full text

HB 161 OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE (Hottinger) Expands the offense of obstructing justice to include aiding a child who commits a delinquent act. Effective: December 31, 1997 Full text

HB 170 COMMERCIAL CODE (Womer Benjamin) Adopts the Revised Article 8 of the Uniform Commercial Code - Investment Securities. Effective: January 1, 1998 Full text

HB 173 FOSTER CARE (Ford) Requires a public or private entity that places a child who has been adjudicated a delinquent child for certain acts in a foster home to inform the foster caregivers about the child's background and, in certain circumstances, conduct a psychological examination of the child and revises the law governing generation of federal funding for foster care training. Effective: July 29, 1998 Full text

HB 177 PROPERTY TAX REDUCTION (Jones) Provides for notification to homeowners of their right to the 2.5% reduction in property taxes; requires an application for the tax reduction to be incorporated into any forms used by county auditors to administer the tax law in respect to the conveyance of real property and authorizes the conveyance of state-owned real estate in Cuyahoga County to HDH Mechanical, Inc. Effective: September 16, 1998 Full text

HB 182 TELEPHONE HARASSMENT (Core) Enhances the penalties for telephone harassment, inducing panic, and making false alarms. Effective: October 1, 1997 Full text

HB 187 PAIN CONTROL (Thomas) Regarding the authority of physicians to prescribe, dispense, and administer controlled substances for management of intractable pain. Effective: October 14, 1997 Full text

HB 192 EMERGENCY SERVICES (Carey) Creates the Small Government Fire Department Services Revolving Loan Program to help certain municipal corporations, townships and fire districts meet specified fire fighting and emergency medical needs and makes an appropriation. Effective: September 16, 1998 Full text

HB 194 PFDPF BENEFITS (Vesper) Increases the pensions payable to certain retirees and survivors of the Police and Firemen's Disability and Pension Fund, allows a township to pay in a single payment its accrued liability to the Fund by entering into an agreement with the Fund, allows a municipal corporation or township to enter into an agreement with other municipal corporations or townships to issue on behalf of those municipal corporations or townships certain securities for the purpose of paying the employer's accrued liability to the Fund, and declares an emergency. Effective: December 21, 1998 Full text

HB 199 GRANT HIGHWAY (Vesper) Designates a portion of US Route 52 as the "U.S. Grant Memorial Highway," and declares an emergency. Effective: April 22, 1997 Full text

HB 202 STATE FORMS (Batchelder) Requires the State Forms Management Control Center to create a single business reply form to be used by state agencies to obtain information from private businesses and requires the center to create an on-line computer network system to allow private businesses to electronically file the single business reply form. Effective: February 25, 1998 Full text

HB 203 FISHING/HUNTING LICENSES (Wachtmann) Requires the chief of the Division of Wildlife in the Department of Natural Resources to adopt rules providing for the issuance of one-day fishing licenses; makes changes to facilitate implementation of a new point-of-sale system for the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses, wetlands habitat stamps, deer or wild turkey permits and fur taker permits, including authorizing certain provisions governing the licenses, stamps and permits to be changed by rule; increases the fee for reissuance of a lost, destroyed, or stolen hunting or fishing license, deer or wild turkey permit, or fur taker permit; allows license agents, in addition to clerks of courts of common pleas, to reissue such licenses and permits if the chief authorizes it; eliminates the requirement that a hunter or trapper wear a tag on the back of the hunter's or trapper's outer garment; and prohibits the taking of mussels or the sale of mussels taken in state. Effective: February 25, 1998 Full text

HB 204 GOVERNMENT PURCHASES (Wachtmann) Allows certain political subdivisions to purchase supplies and services outside of a Department of Administrative Services purchase contract and without complying with competitive selection procedures if the purchase can be made at a lower price than is available through such a contract, increases the competitive bidding threshold for certain municipal contracts from $10,000 to $15,000, eliminates the requirement that state printing contracts be executed within Ohio, and prohibits non-Ohio businesses from bidding on state printing contracts in Ohio if they are located in a state that excludes Ohio businesses from bidding on state printing contracts in that state. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 208 HIGHWAY NAME (Opfer) Names the portion of I-280 running between Oregon and Toledo as the "Catholic War Veterans of the USA Highway." Effective: December 18, 1997 Full text

HB 209 SHOOTING RANGES (Roman) Requires the Chief of the Division of Wildlife to establish standards for the limitation and suppression of noise and for public safety at shooting ranges and provides limited immunity from civil and criminal liability to persons who operate or use shooting ranges in substantial compliance with those rules. Effective: November 21, 1997 Full text

HB 210 TRANSPORTATION BUDGET (Core) Makes appropriations and reappropriations for highways for the 1997-1999 biennium; provides authorizations and conditions for the operation programs related to transportation and public safety; eliminates the ethanol credit allowed against the motor fuel tax; eliminates the program to reimburse hospitals for indigent care using motor fuel tax money; eliminates the authority of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to suspend the driver's license of a person who fails to submit a motor vehicle accident report; raises the competitive bidding threshold for purchases by a regional airport authority or conservancy district; and requires the Department of Commerce have two assistant directors. Effective: July 1, 1997 - Certain sections on other dates Note: Certain sections were line item vetoed by the governor - See story in Ohio Report #60, Monday, March 31, 1997 Full text

HB 212 MEDICAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS (Netzley) Requires the Department of Administrative Services to establish a medical savings account program available to certain state employees. Effective: March 9, 1999 Full text

HB 215 BIENNIAL BUDGET (Johnson) Makes operating appropriations for the biennium beginning July 1, 1997 and ending June 30, 1999 and provides authorization and conditions for the operation of state programs. Appropriation sections effective: June 30, 1997, certain sections Sept. 29, 1997 (See Ohio Report #124, Monday, June 30, 1997 for story on 17 line item vetoes) Full text

HB 217 HIGHWAY USE TAX (Damschroder) Requires the Highway Use Tax to be paid annually, instead of quarterly, on farm trucks that consume less than 15,000 gallons of motor fuel annually and allows the Highway Use Tax to be paid either annually or quarterly, at the option of the person liable for payment of the tax, on trucks that consume 15,000 gallons or more of motor fuel annually. Effective: May 21, 1998 Full text

HB 219 NARCOTICS DOGS (Reid) Authorizes the issuance without a fee or annual registration for narcotics detector canines of specified law enforcement agencies. Effective: June 1, 1998 Full text

HB 224 VANITY LICENSE PLATES (Perz) Makes changes in certain special license plate programs. Effective: August 21, 1997 (Certain sections later) Full text

HB 228 PUBLIC TRANSIT (Corbin) Authorizes regional transit authorities to use the lease and leaseback financing technique to finance their facilities, removes from the Regional Transit Authority Law a reference to an obsolete provision of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 and declares an emergency. Effective: May 7, 1997 Full text

HB 238 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (Coughlin) Specifies additional circumstances in which the offense of domestic violence is a felony of the fifth degree. Effective: November 5, 1997 Full text

HB 242 NON-PROFIT ASSETS (Van Vyven) Requires that the Attorney General review transfers of assets by certain nonprofit health care entities to for-profit entities and declares an emergency. Effective: May 7, 1997 Full text

HB 243 SIGNATURE CODES (Van Vyven) Establishes standards for using electronic signatures in health care records, extends exemptions from hospital and nursing home regulations that apply to Christian Science sanitoriums to other institutions that meet similar criteria, eliminates an extension on the effective date of the licensing requirement that applies to certain health care facilities located in rural areas, modifies the requirements to practice as a clinical nurse specialist, and designates "Ohio Breast Cancer Awareness Month" and "Ohio Mammography Day." Effective: May 21, 1998 Full text

HB 244 OPERATION FEES (Van Vyven) Requires, in the absence of the landowner's objection, that the county auditor place as a lien on real property any unpaid household sewage disposal system operation permit or inspection fee that is certified to the auditor by a health district and authorizes the county prosecutor to commence civil action to obtain such unpaid fee. Effective: September 30, 1998. Full text

HB 248 INSURANCE FRAUD (Reid) Requires insurers to adopt an antifraud program that includes written procedures for pursuing insurance fraud, requires insurers to report persons suspected of insurance fraud to the Department of Insurance, requires the persons convicted of a felony while licensed as agents or solicitors to report the conviction to the Department, and makes other changes related to insurance fraud investigations. Effective: March 17, 1998 Full text

HB 259 FALSE ALARMS (Lawrence) Permits townships that operate a township police department to impose a charge for false alarms received from malfunctioning security alarm systems under certain conditions and includes such false alarms answered by police constables among the false alarms for which county sheriffs and certain boards of township trustees may impose charges. Effective: December 18, 1997 Full text

HB 261 VEHICLE INSURANCE (Hottinger) Permits occupational driving privileges for first-time violators and the Financial Responsibility Law, modifies Ohio's Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists Law by limiting the insured's right to recover when the owner or operator of the uninsured motor vehicle has an immunity; by requiring independent corroborative evidence to recover for injuries caused by an unidentified motorist; and by making other modifications to the scope of and coverage under the Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists Law. Effective: September 3, 1997 Full text

HB 269 SCHOOL GOVERNANCE (Wise) Authorizes the mayor of a municipal corporation to appoint a nine-member school board in a municipal school district operating under a federal court order and permits the voters to decide four or more years later whether or not to continue that method of selecting school board members or to return to an elected board. Effective: November 12, 1997 Full text

HB 275 FIREARMS (Haines) Specifies that the offense of improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle is not committed when, under specified circumstances, the alleged offender discharges a firearm from, or transports or possesses a firearm in, a motor vehicle on certain real property owned by the alleged offender or a family member. Effective: December 31, 1997 Full text

HB 280 ZONING (Schuler) Permits the establishment of planned-unit developments in county and township zoning codes under which property owners may elect to have either the planned-unit development regulations or regular underlying zoning regulations apply to their property. Effective: Oct. 21, 1997 Full text

HB 282 FARM MACHINERY (Hodges) Permits a motor vehicle operated by a coroner or deputy coroner to be equipped with flashing, oscillating or rotating lights and a siren, whistle or bell; requires vehicles to yield the right of way to a coroner's vehicle equipped with flashing lights and siren; exempt the operator of a coroner's vehicle from certain traffic laws when displaying flashing lights and sounding a siren in an authorized manner; permits farm machinery and vehicles escorting farm machinery to display simultaneously flashing turn signals or warning lights when being operated on a street or highway. Effective: November 12, 1997 (Allowed to become law without the governor's signature) Full text

HB 293 PRIVATE PRISONS (Gerberry) Expressly includes within the definition of "detention" the confinement in any public or private facility of alleged or convicted offenders or alleged or adjudicated delinquent or unruly children who violate or allegedly violate a law of the state, another state or the United States, expressly includes within the definition of "detention facility" any public or private facility used for detention of that nature, provides comprehensive criteria for the establishment and operation in Ohio of privately operated correction facilities that house out-of-state prisoners, clarifies the application of the law that prohibits "county correctional officers" and "municipal correctional officers" from affording prisoners with access to weight exercise equipment or to martial arts or fight training, requires the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to contract for the private operation and management of the initial intensive program prison it establishes for offenders sentenced to a mandatory prison term for fourth degree felony OMVI offenses, and declares an emergency. Effective: March 17, 1998 Full text

HB 302 STALKING (Myers) Authorizes the issuance of a civil protection order to protect a person who has been a victim of menacing by stalking. Effective: July 29, 1998 Full text

HB 304 TOWNSHIP ROADS/STREAMS (Clancy) Allows township trustees to adopt a resolution to provide snow and debris removal from undedicated roads and stream banks in emergencies during any one-month period. Effective: March 17, 1998 Full text

HB 321 DRINKING WATER (Householder) Authorizes the director of Environmental Protection to develop and implement a drinking water assistance loan program consistent with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 and to receive and distribute federal capitalization grant moneys for the purpose of that program and makes other changes in the state's safety drinking water program in accordance with that act. Effective: November 26, 1997 Full text

HB 336 ANTICIPATION NOTES (O'Brien) Permits taxing authorities to issue property tax anticipation notes at any time during the life of the tax levy, permits townships to levy a property tax for the purpose of building or maintaining walkways and similar improvements or for that purpose and for general street repair and modifies the statement of purpose for property taxes levied for "greenspace." Effective: November 12, 1997 Full text

HB 338 UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE (Callender) Adopts Revised Article V - Letters of Credit of the Uniform Commercial Code. Effective: November 5, 1997 (Certain sections on July 1, 1998) Full text

HB 339 STRS (Vesper) Increases benefits under the State Teachers Retirement System. Effective: August 6, 1997 Full text

HB 342 POLICE PROTECTION (Householder) Expands the authority of a county sheriff to obtain aid from other specified political subdivisions, expands a township's authority to obtain additional police protection by contract, and permits municipal corporations to allow their police officers to work in multijurisdictional drug, gang, or career criminal task forces. Effective: December 31, 1997 Full text

HB 343 WAR ORPHANS (Padgett) Makes corrective and other changes in the War Orphans Law. Effective: Oct. 21, 1997 Full text

HB 348 STATE EMPLOYMENT (Schuck) Makes conviction of certain felonies a separate basis for disciplining a classified employee, prohibits appeals to the State Personnel Board of Review or a local civil service commission if the subject of the appeal is a classified employee's discipline for conviction of certain felonies, deprives a person convicted of certain felonies of tenure rights to state employment, and specifies the date when a disciplinary order is served upon a classified employee. Effective: March 22, 1999 Full text

HB 352 CHILD SUPPORT (Winkler) Makes changes in the laws governing child support. Effective: November 28, 1997 Full text

HB 354 MEDICAL RESUSCITATION (Terwilleger) Relative to "do not resuscitate" identifications, orders and protocols. Effective: July 9, 1998. Full text

HB 361 PHYSICIAN-HEALTH PLAN PARTNERSHIP (Van Vyven) Adopts the Physician-Health Plan Partnership Act, authorizes the Administrator of Workers' Compensation to transfer surplus computers and computer equipment directly to an accredited public school within Ohio, specifies circumstances under which a board of county commissioners may be granted status as a self-insuring employer for purposes of the Workers' Compensation Law, and declares an emergency. Effective: December 16, 1997 Full text

HB 362 INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION (Thompson) Designates the chairperson of the Industrial Commission as the chief executive officer of the commission, changes the title of the chief administrative officer of the Commission to executive director; specifies the authority of the chairperson, limits the authority of the members of the commission to rulemaking, appeals, reconsiderations and other adjudicatory powers, removes the requirement that the commission appoint district and staff hearing officers and requires the Chairperson to obtain the approval of at least one other Commission member prior to hiring district and staff hearing officers, requires the governor to appoint the chairperson; provides exceptions to deadlines for filing appeals of claims with the Industrial Commission; and makes appropriations for the Industrial Commission for the biennium beginning July 1, 1997 and ending June 30, 1999. Appropriation sections effective: June 30, 1997, certain sections Sept. 29, 1997. Full text

HB 363 BWC BUDGET (Thompson) Makes appropriations for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation for the biennium beginning July 1, 1997 and ending June 30, 1999 and provides authorization and conditions for the operation of the Bureau of Workers' Compensation programs. Appropriation sections effective: June 30, 1997, certain sections Sept. 29, 1997 (See Ohio Report #124, Monday, June 30, 1997 for story on a line item veto) Full text

HB 368 YARD WASTE (Mottley) Specifies that property taxes levied for the purpose of collecting and disposing of garbage or refuse may be used for collecting and disposing of yard waste. Effective: September 30, 1998. Full text

HB 370 INSURANCE ORGANIZATION (Batchelder) Permits a mutual insurance company to raise capital by reorganizing as a stock insurance company that is a majority-owned subsidiary of a mutual insurance holding company. Effective: September 16, 1997 Full text

HB 371 DELINQUENT TAXES (Hodges) Relative to the authority of county treasurers to collect delinquent real property taxes by selling certificates entitling the bearers to liens against the property in the amount of the delinquency, to the issuance of general obligation bonds in support of and in combination with the issuance of infrastructure project obligations, and to the use of social security numbers by the Division of Unclaimed Funds in the Department of Commerce. Effective: February 25, 1998 Full text

HB 374 INSURANCE PORTABILITY (Van Vyven) Relative to the implementation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and insurance coverage of follow-up care for a mother and newborn and declares an emergency. Effective: June 30, 1997 Full text

HB 378 VICTIM REPARATIONS (Kasputis) Includes terrorism as a criminally injurious conduct for purposes of the Crime Victims Reparations Awards Law. Effective: March 10, 1998 Full text

HB 382 INDUCING PANIC (Ogg) Increases the penalty for the offense of inducing panic when the public place involved in the offense is a school and permits school districts that close or evacuate a school building as a result of a bomb threat to make up the time the school was closed, for purposes of compliance with the laws that specify the number of days schools must be open and the number of hours there must be in a school day, in one-half hour increments added to other school days. Effective: July 22, 1998 Full text

HB 388 ZONING (Haines) Provides for the appointment of two alternate members to a county rural zoning commission, a county board of zoning appeals, a township zoning commission, and a township board of zoning appeals. Effective: July 22, 1998 Full text

HB 390 LIQUOR LOCAL OPTION (Sawyer) Allows a local option liquor election on the sale of beer, the sale of wine and mixed beverages, the sale of spirituous liquor, and Sunday sales in a portion of a precinct or residence district where the status of such sales as allowed or prohibited is inconsistent with the status of such sales in the remainder of the precinct or residence districts, shorters from four years to two years the period before local option liquor questions may be resubmitted to the voters, exempts for a two-year period from the effects of local option elections the sale of beer and intoxicating liquor at the State Fairgrounds and at the Ohio Historical Society and Ohio Village contiguous to the State Fairgrounds, and declares an emergency. Effective: July 19, 1997 (Allowed to become law without the governor's signature) Full text

HB 394 APPEALABLE ORDERS (Mason) Specifies circumstances under which an order granting or denying a provisional remedy is a final appealable order and specifies that an order to determine whether an action may be maintained as a class action is a final appealable order. Effective: July 22, 1998 Full text

HB 395 ABORTION (Hottinger) Prohibits the use of state funds to provide healthcare insurance benefits for nontherapeutic abortions received by officers and employees of the state. Effective May 6, 1998 Full text

HB 396 SCHOOL DIPLOMAS (Mead) Permits the "home" school districts of students receiving high school diplomas from the State School for the Blind or State School for the Deaf to also grant these students high school diplomas and to require "home" districts to grant diplomas to such students if they meet the graduation requirements of the district, requires Head Start programs to be licensed by the Department of Education instead of the Department of Human Services, requires the Department of Education to issue annual reports concerning its inspection of preschool and school child programs, and eliminates provisions that permit exempt child daycare entities to elect to be licensed by the Department of Human Services and that make the election irrevocable. Effective: January 30, 1998 Full text

HB 402 LIQUOR LAWS (Schuler) Removes the prohibition against a liquor permit holder advertising the retail price of beer and malt beverages off the permit holder's premises, makes changes in local option elections including the elimination of resident districts, modifies the application of local option liquor elections to state agency stores, consolidates the adjudication of liquor law nuisances with other statutory nuisances, authorizes the holding of a local option election, on the sale of beer and intoxicating liquor at a community facility, within the municipal corporation or unincorporated area of the township in which the community facility is located, prohibits the issuance or renewal of liquor permits at and the transfer of liquor permits to a premises that has been found to be a nuisance, makes changes regarding the criteria for issuance of D-5i permits, specifies that when a property is divided between two election precincts with differing rules governing the sale of beer and intoxicating liquor because of the results of local option elections, the property is considered to be in the precinct where the sale of beer and intoxicating liquor is allowed, modifies the requirements for obtaining an F-2 permit to authorize the sale of beer, wine and spirituous liquor by certain organizations for not more than 48 hours for on-premises consumption in an area where the sale of beer and wine, but not spirituous liquor, or alcohol seized by the Division of Liquor Control may be used for law enforcement training activities. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 408 WELFARE REFORM (Lawrence) Abolishes the Aid to Dependent Children and the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program, creates the Ohio Works First Program and revises the law governing the Disability Assistance Program, Title XX social services, day care, confidentiality of public assistance records and administration of human services, children services and child support enforcement. Effective: Oct. 1, 1997 Full text

HB 412 PERFORMANCE AUDITS (Cates) Authorizes the Auditor of State to conduct performance audits of school districts in a state of fiscal watch or fiscal emergency. Effective: November 21, 1997 Full text

HB 419 COUNTY OFFICES (Householder) Allows county commissioners to hold regular sessions at a location in the county other than at its office location in the county seat, allows the commissioners to provide the county engineer with an office at a location outside the county seat, and permits counties to use their share of certain state fuel taxes to purchase or lease buildings to house equipment and employees used in the construction and maintenance of county roads. Effective: August 5, 1998 Full text

HB 421 ABORTION NOTICE (Luebbers) Regarding patient notification prior to an abortion. Effective May 6, 1998 Full text

HB 425 COMMODITIES/TRUCK WEIGHTS (Thompson) Changes the definition of an agricultural commodity handler, increases the total net worth than an applicant for an agricultural commodity handler's license must maintain, increases the penalty for engaging in agricultural commodity handling without a license, makes other revisions to the law governing agricultural commodity handling, permits certain pickup trucks and straight trucks to tow at a speed not exceeding 25 MPH not more than two vehicles carrying agricultural produce from the farm to a local place of storage, and, except during the months of February and March, to allow farm and log trucks and farm machinery, under prescribed circumstances, to exceed by no more than five per cent the established motor vehicle weight limits on highways and bridges that are not part of the interstate system and are not subject to reduced weight limits. Effective: July 29, 1998 Full text

HB 426 LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUNDS (Clancy) Permits taxing authorities of subdivisions to create accounts in which funds may be reserved for budget stabilization, self-insurance claim payments, the payment of claims under retrospective ratings plans for workers' compensation, accumulated employee leave, capital projects, and nonexpendable trusts, and specifies that such reserves shall not affect state revenue distributions to certain subdivisions through local government funds. Effective: July 22, 1998 Full text

HB 429 CEMETERY VANDALISM (Ogg) Defines "cemetery," defined to include certain American Indian burial sites, in the vandalism and desecration law. Effective: September 30, 1998. Full text

HB 433 MEMORIAL HIGHWAY (Thomas) Designates United States Route 33 the "Marine Corps League Memorial Highway." Effective: November 12, 1997 Full text

HB 434 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ZONES (Schuring) Makes various changes in procedures governing the creation of joint economic development zones and certain joint economic development zones and certain joint economic development districts, grants additional authority to subdivisions joining in certain kinds of joint economic development zones regarding the issuance of industrial development bonds, sharing property taxes, and granting property tax exemptions, authorizes municipal corporations, counties, townships, the state and certain persons and private entities to enter into cooperative economic development agreements, and makes changes in the technology investment tax credit progrEffective: March 22, 1999 Full text

HB 444 JUDGES (Taylor) Adds two judges to the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas, one to be elected to the Division of Domestic Relations of that Court; creates the Domestic Relations-Juvenile-Probate Division of the Marion County Court of Common Pleas, adds one judge to the Marion County Court of Common Pleas to be elected to that Division in 1998, grants that Division jurisdiction over all juvenile and domestic matters and, on and after February 9, 2003, concurrent jurisdiction over all juvenile and domestic matters, and on and after February 9, 2003, grants the judge of the Probate Division of the Marion County Court of Common Pleas who is elected in 2002 concurrent jurisdiction with the judge of the Domestic Relations-Juvenile-Probate Division of that Court over all juvenile, domestic matters, and probate matters, and declares an emergency. Effective: January 15, 1998 Full text

HB 445 MAYOR VACANCY (Logan) Requires that when a vacancy in the office of mayor of a city occurs under certain circumstances, an election be held to fill the office for part of the unexpired term and allows the president pro tempore of the legislative authority of a village having a population of less than two thousand to choose whether to resume serving on the legislative authority after filling a vacancy in the office of mayor. Effective: March 17, 1998 Full text

HB 446 ADOPTIVE/ FOSTER PARENTS (Williams) Regarding adoption assessors, prefinalization assessments and rehabilitation standards a person with a criminal background must meet to become an adoptive or foster parent and the Department of Human Services' contracting with a vendor to develop a statewide automated child welfare information system. Effective: August 5, 1998 Full text

HB 463 JUDGESHIP (Mason) Creates one additional judge for the Franklin County Municipal Court and declares an emergency. Effective: August 4, 1997 Full text

HB 464 TRADEMARK LAW (Mason) Revises the definitions of trademark and service mark in the Ohio Trademark Law, modifies the procedures for registering a trademark or service mark, and makes other changes in the Ohio Trademark Law. Effective: Sept. 1, 1998 Full text

HB 471 CRIME VICTIM REPARATIONS (Metzger) Permits a minor child or surviving spouse of a deceased crime victim to receive an award of reparations based on a dependent's economic loss and replacement services loss even if the child is adopted or the spouse remarries. Effective: March 10, 1998 Full text

HB 478 UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS (Corbin) Makes changes in the determination of benefits by the Administrator of the Bureau of Employment Services, makes changes in the appeals process for unemployment compensation claims, clarifies when an employer receives an experience-rated unemployment tax rate, changes the notice requirements for employers, modifies the provisions regarding seasonal employment, permits the Bureau to charge the mutualized account when there is no other account to which benefits may be charged, specifies that all information maintained by the Administrator is confidential, authorizes the acceptance of reports required from employers and unemployment claims from claimants by electronic means, deletes the calendar year 1990 costs of automation surcharge on all employers, provides that the Bureau receives legal process in child support enforcement matters rather than the Department of Human Services, includes limited liability companies in the definition of "employer," changes the definition of independent contractor, makes conforming changes in response to changes in the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, makes other changes in the Unemployment Compensation Law, and rmits specified port authorities to apply to the appropriate authority of the United States to make modifications relative to foreign trade zones, and declares an emergency. Effective: November 26, 1997 Full text

HB 486 LAND CONVEYANCE (Mead) Conveys two parcels of state-owned real estate located in Franklin County to the City of Columbus, authorizes the conveyance of state-owned real estate controlled by the Department of Mental Health and known as the St. Dymphna Chapel property located in Hamilton County to the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences, Inc. (IMAS), a nonprofit organization, and authorizes the conveyance of state-owned real estate controlled by the Department of Mental Health and located in Summit County to Ohio Health Ventures. Effective: January 30, 1998 Full text

HB 502 BOATING EDUCATION (Damschroder) Prohibits a person born on or after January 1, 1982 from operating powercraft powered by more than ten horsepower unless the person successfully has completed a safe boater course or proficiency examination and makes other changes to the law governing the operation of powercraft. Effective: September 16, 1998 (Certain sections later) Full text

HB 507 SMALL CLAIMS COURTS (Bateman) Repeals the limitation that persons generally cannot file more than 24 claims in the small claims division of any municipal or county court within any calendar year, repeals the limitation on the amount of the filing a small claims division may charge for commencing a civil action, expands the special projects for which a municipal court may charge an additional filing fee on the filing of each criminal cause, civil action or proceeding or judgment on the case, permits a court of common pleas to charge an additional filing fee on the filing of each criminal cause, civil action or proceeding, or judgment by confession to acquire and pay for special projects of the court, permits a court of appeals to charge an additional filing fee on the filing of each case or cause over which the court has jurisdiction to acquire and pay for special projects of the court and changes the status of the judge of the Washington Court House Municipal Court from part-time to full-time. Effective: March 22, 1999 Full text

HB 515 LOCAL GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS (Householder) Allows the use of county credit cards to pay for work-related transportation and Internet service provider expenses and authorizes a board of county commissioners to pass a resolution specifying financial transfer devices that may be accepted for the payment of expenses to county offices. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 523 CRIME VICTIMS/PUBLIC RECORDS (Salerno) Increases the amount of recoverable funeral expense under the Crime Victims Reparations Law, revises the information an applicant must submit in an application for a reparations award under that Law, and provides that confidential information obtained by the Court of Claims or Attorney General under that Law remains confidential while in the Court's or Attorney General's possession. Effective: June 30, 1998 Full text

HB 526 DNA (Clancy) Expands the circumstances under which a DNA specimen must be taken from a convicted offender or adjudicated delinquent child; clarifies, conforms or revises certain provisions of the Juvenile Court Law and Department of Youth Services Law that were enacted in or affected by HB1 of the 122nd General Assembly; reestablishes the authority of a juvenile court judge to place a public safety bed delinquent child in a community corrections facility and maintains the provisions of this act on and after Jan. 1, 1999 by amending the version of Sec. 2151 of the Revised Code that takes effect on that date. Effective: Sept. 1, 1998 Full text

HB 538 LICENSE PLATES (Core) Authorizes the issuance of an Eastern Star license plate. Effective: June 1, 1998 Full text

HB 547 TORT RECOVERY (Grendell) Expands the bar against the recovery of damages in tort actions commenced by criminal offenders to include misdemeanors that are offenses of violence. Effective: August 5, 1998 Full text

HB 552 LAND CONVEYANCE (Thomas) Authorizes the sale of state-owned real estate controlled by the Ohio Schools for the Deaf and Blind and located in Franklin County to the City of Columbus (Division of Water), authorizes the conveyance of three easements over state-owned real estate controlled by the Ohio Schools for the Deaf and Blind and located in Franklin County to the City of Columbus (Division of Water), authorizes the conveyance of a conservation easement over state-owned real estate controlled by the Ohio Schools for the Deaf and Blind and located in Franklin County to the Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District and declares an emergency. Effective: March 31, 1998 Full text

HB 553 OPTOMETRY (Coughlin) Revises the laws pertaining to the powers and duties of the State Board of Optometry. Effective: March 9, 1999 Full text

HB 557 LAND CONVEYANCE (Core) Authorizes the conveyance of state-owned real estate located in Logan County, known as the Flat Branch Sewage Treatment Plant, to the Board of County Commissioners of Logan County and authorizes the conveyance of state-owned property known as the Logan Armory to the Board of Commissioners of Hocking County. Effective; July 9, 1998. Full text

HB 558 WORKERS' COMPENSATION (Wise) Provides workers' compensation coverage for off-duty police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians who are injured or killed while responding to an emergency situation; requires that payment for those claims be paid from the Workers' Compensation Surplus Fund rather than the State Insurance Fund and requires the Workers' Compensation Oversight Commission to meet a minimum of nine times annually. Effective: September 30, 1998. Full text

HB 562 STUDENT AID COMMISSION (Damschroder) Removes statutory references to the Ohio Student Aid Commission. Effective: September 30, 1998 (Certain sections later). Full text

HB 565 COMPUTER/ TELECOMMUNICATIONS OFFENSES (Terwilleger) Relative to computer and telecommunications offenses, orders for the installation of trap and trace devices or pen registers, and revisions in the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Law regarding the duty to register, the duration of the registration requirements, the scope of community notification, and certain technical changes. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 570 FOOD PROGRAMS (Winkler) Provides for the State Board of Education to approve youth development centers' participation in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and declares an emergency. Effective: March 2, 1998 Full text

HB 579 CORPORATE FILINGS (Coughlin) Revises the manner in which the Secretary of State records certain filings made by corporations, limited liability companies, foreign limited liability companies, credit unions, limited partnerships and foreign limited partnerships; modifies the conditions under which a partnership becomes and continues to be a registered domestic limited liability partnership and allows such partnerships to file with the Secretary of State a statement of corrections regarding its registration application; specifies the conditions under which a foreign limited liability partnership's registration ceases; specifies the contents of a fictitious name report; provides for the cancellation of marks of ownership; provides for one year of name protection from the date of any corporate cancellation; makes other revisions in the laws governing the availability of trade names, trademarks and service marks, and for-profit and non-profit corporate names, the use of fictitious names, mark of ownership statements, merger certificates, the amending of articles of incorporation and applications filed by a foreign corporation for profit to conduct business in this state, eliminates the requirement that a foreign corporation have its license revoked if it tries to change venue or remove a suit to federal court; makes changes regarding the appointment of a statutory agency by a foreign corporation; modifies the use of crops growing or to be grown as security interests; and permits corporate directors to form committees of one or more directors. Effective: July 29, 1998 Full text

HB 581 HEALTH BOARDS (Batchelder) Allows the board of health of a general health district to acquire real property, removes any existing duty of the county to furnish suitable quarters to the health district if the district acquires real property, allows the county to issue securities under limited circumstances for the acquisition of real property by the health district, and excludes such securities from the computation of the county's debt limit. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 596 HOUSING AUTHORITY POLICE (James) Authorizes a metropolitan housing authority and a political subdivision to enter into an agreement that permits housing authority police officers to exercise police powers in specified areas of the political subdivision. Effective: March 9, 1999 Full text

HB 599 HIGHWAY PATROL AUXILIARY (Bateman) Authorizes the Superintendent of the State Highway Patrol to establish a State Highway Patrol Auxiliary. Effective: June 1, 1998 Full text

HB 600 COOPERATIVE LAW (Householder) Establishes the "Ohio Cooperative Law" by revising the agricultural cooperative law, by repealing the law governing consumers' and worker-owned cooperatives and by enacting provisions for mergers, consolidations, divisions and dissolutions of cooperatives, and permits livestock trailers to be displayed and sold at livestock and agricultural shows. Effective: August 5, 1998 Full text

HB 602 JUDGESHIP (Callender) Adds one General Division judge to the Court of Common Pleas of Lake County to be elected at the general election in November 2000. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 606 STATE MEDICAL BOARD (Schuring) Makes revisions in the disciplinary procedures used by the State Medical Board and makes other changes regarding the Board's licensing and enforcement duties. Effective: March 9, 1999 Full text

HB 611 VEHICLE TITLES (Harris) Requires that owners of certain off-highway motorcycles and all-purpose vehicles obtain certificates of title for the vehicles. Effective: March 9, 1999 Full text

HB 612 MEDICAL LIABILITY EXEMPTION (Metzger) Exempts dentists who volunteer as school athletic team dentists and provide emergency dental care or first aid treatment to participants in school athletic events from liability in civil damages unless their actions constitute willful or wanton misconduct; delays until Nov. 15, 2000, the repeal of laws that establish qualified immunity from civil liability for health care providers who provide free health care services to indigent and uninsured persons; repeals the duty of the Department of Health to commence a survey May 15, 1998 to measure specified health care services provided pursuant to that qualified immunity; requires the Department of Health to survey nonprofit shelters and health care facilities to measure health care services provided pursuant to that qualified immunity and grievances related to the provision of those health care services and declares an emergency. Effective: June 2, 1998 (Certain sections later) Full text

HB 618 ACCIDENT SCENE (Opfer) Increases penalty for leaving the scene of an accident that results in serious physical harm or death and requires drivers of other vehicles to stop for any bus operated by an agency offering a Head Start program when the bus is equipped and marked as a school bus and is stopped to receive or discharge a child attending the progrEffective: March 22, 1999 Full text

HB 621 FARM LOANS (Haines) Creates the Family Farm Loan Program in the Department of Agriculture and creates the Family Farm Loan Fund in the Department of Development to promote agricultural development, makes changes to the Rural Industrial Park Loan Program, and terminates the provisions of the farm loan program on June 30, 1999, extends the date on which the Rural Industrial Park Loan Program terminates from January 1, 1999 to June 30, 1999, and makes an appropriation. Effective: June 15, 1998 (Appropriation sections immediately) Full text

HB 626 PARISH HIGHWAY (Bateman) Increases the membership of the Transportation Review Advisory Council from seven to nine members and designates SR 125 within Clermont County the "Edward J. Parish Highway" and portions of I-675 be known as the "John Kalaman and Robert O'Toole Memorial Highway." Effective: September 16, 1998 Full text

HB 643 NATIONAL GUARD DAY (Carey) Designates July 25 as Ohio National Guard Day. Effective: July 9, 1998. Full text

HB 648 DISABILITY BENEFITS (Van Vyven) Makes changes to the disability benefit programs offered by the five state retirement systems and makes other changes in the law governing the state retirement systems. Effective: September 16, 1998 Full text

HB 649 LEGISLATIVE OPERATIONS (Gardner) Improves the operations of the General Assembly by permitting members to resign without a vote of acceptance, transferring responsibility for preservation of the final journals to the Ohio Historical Society, retitling the Legislative Clerk of the House as the Clerk of the House, retitling the Executive Secretary of the House as the Chief Administrative Officer of the House, updating the mileage paid to certain officers of the Senate and House and clarifying that only the principal sergeant at arms is to be paid mileage. Effective: March 9, 1999 Full text

HB 650 SCHOOL FUNDING (Johnson) Establishes a new system for funding education; makes specific appropriations and certain increases and decreases in existing appropriations for fiscal year 1999; makes certain appropriations contingent on approval of a constitutional amendment and changes the use of the fiscal year 1998 year-end balance in the General Revenue Fund for purposes of funding elementary and secondary education beginning July 1, 1998. Effective: July 1, 1998 Full text

HB 652 TOWNSHIP DAY (Schuler) Designates the first day of February of each year as Ohio Township Day and permits an island township to levy a property tax, with voter approval, to acquire additional park land. Effective: June 1, 1998 Full text

HB 657 TRANSIENT VENDORS (O'Brien) Changes law that authorizes regulation of the activities of certain transient vendors by the boards of township trustees and allows such boards to prohibit these activities. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 672 DEADLINE EXTENSION (Johnson) Extends until February 4, 1998 the date by which the General Assembly must develop a plan to provide itemized appropriations to the Department of Education for the 1999 fiscal year and declares an emergency. Effective: January 15, 1998 Full text

HB 673 RETIREMENT BENEFITS (Padgett) Increases the School Employees Retirement System (SERS) service retirement benefit for retirants with more than 30 years' service credit, increases the SERS death benefit to $1,000, increases the SERS reimbursement for insurance coverage under Medicare Part B, makes changes with regard to military service credit granted by PERS, makes changes to the law governing alternative retirement programs for employees of public institutions of higher education, changes the date by which the Ohio Retirement Study Council is required to have completed and submitted an actuarial study of the alternative retirement program for employees of public institutions of higher education, permits a member of PERS who resigned due to pregnancy to purchase up to one year of service credit, permits a member of STRS who was granted a leave of absence for pregnancy or resigned due to pregnancy to purchase up to two years of service credit, and declares an emergency. Effective: March 9, 1999 (Certain sections on July 1, 1999) Full text

HB 674 REGIONAL LIBRARIES (Carey) Authorizes certain libraries to form regional library systems and authorizes the board of trustees of any public library district to credit earnings on investments to funds other than the district's general fund. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 694 LEGAL PRACTICE (Schuler) Clarifies who may file a complaint with a county board of revision and declares that the filing of a complaint does not constitute the unauthorized practice of law. Effective: March 30, 1999 Full text

HB 697 SALES TAX INCREASE (Johnson) Levies an additional one per cent sales and use tax, the proceeds of which must be used one-half for schools and one-half to provide property tax relief for homesteads, provides that the tax takes effect only after being approved by the electors, and makes an appropriation. Effective: February 17, 1998 (Certain sections later) Full text

HB 698 HEALTH INSURANCE (Van Vyven) Conforms provisions in the health insuring corporation law and the sickness and accident insurance law with the health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996; clarifies other provisions in these laws; and specifies how health insuring corporations are to bring their net worth into compliance with the health insuring corporation law. Effective: March 22, 1999 Full text

HB 701 PRUDENT INVESTOR ACT (Mason) Adopts the Uniform Prudent Investor Act of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, requires a disclosure of relationship, at least annually by account statement, when a fiduciary makes an investment of trust funds in securities of an affiliated investment company, specifies that absent an express agreement, attorneys of certain fiduciaries have no duty to persons to persons to whom the fiduciary has a fiduciary obligation, and provides that the rule against perpetuities does not apply to certain trusts or trust assets. Effective: March 22, 1999 Full text

HB 717 DEFIBRILLATION/LIABILITY (Vesper) Authorizes the performance of automated external defibrillation and provides civil and criminal immunity and declares an emergency. Effective: December 17, 1998 Full text

HB 770 BUDGET CORRECTIONS (Johnson) Corrects, supplements, and modifies certain authorizations and conditions established for the operation and administration of state programs and makes appropriations for the biennium ending June 30, 1999. Effective: June 17, 1998 (Certain sections later) (See Ohio Report #115, Wednesday, June 17, 1998 for story on two line item vetoes) Full text

HB 850 CAPITAL APPROPRIATIONS (Johnson) Makes capital appropriations for the biennium. Effective: March 18, 1999 (Some sections December 17, 1998) Full text

• Am. (Amends): Indicates the chapter of the Ohio Revised Code that the bill seeks to amend.
• En. (Enacts): Indicates the chapter of the Ohio Revised Code that the bill seeks to enact.
• Rep. (Repeals): Indicates chapter of the Ohio Revised Code that the bill seeks to repeal.