House Bill 483, the MBR's Main Appropriations Bill, Passes Ohio House
The Ohio House of Representatives today passed House Bill 483, legislation that makes appropriation changes and minor policy changes as part of the Mid-Biennial Review (MBR), a package of bills that strives to initiate reforms to state spending, agency operations, and state policies and programs.
House Bill 483 includes provisions that deal with a variety of issues, from shared services and autism intervention training to Clean Ohio Conservation Grants and the Tobacco Use Prevention Fund. These provisions were included at the request of a number of state agencies and organizations through recommendations to improve their operations.
“House Bill 483 focuses on helping our communities lift more of our struggling Ohioans to a better place, to help them help themselves to a better place, where they are less dependent on the taxpayers for public services,” said Chairman of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee Ron Amstutz (R-Wooster).
During the committee process, the House Finance and Appropriations Committee included a provision to require Ohio’s counties to have the full spectrum of integrated opioid addiction recovery treatment—which includes peer mentoring, residential care, outpatient services, 12-step programs, and other services—and recovery housing. These are components of Rep. Robert Sprague’s (R-Findlay) House Bill 369, which was amended into House Bill 483.
A measure was also included to specify that college athletes are not employees of the university, a proactive response to Northwestern University football players being granted the right unionize.
Other components of House Bill 483 include but are not limited to:
• $10 million to protect vulnerable older Ohioans
• $10 million to protect Ohio’s children
• $3 million for the Workforce Training Program that strives to help economically disadvantaged Ohioans
• Provides flexibility in staffing and shared services for county boards of developmental disabilities
• Provides the Board of Pharmacy more resources to upgrade the OARRS system to fight the opiate epidemic
• Provides better access to quality childcare and early learning opportunities for low-income youth
• $2.5 million for the Adult Opportunity Pilot Program, which will permit an eligible community college, state community college, technical college, or Ohio Technical Center to offer a program to allow eligible students to obtain a high school diploma
• Requiring the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to develop and implement a data match program to intercept child support from lottery prize awards and casino winnings if an individual is determined to be in default.
• Requiring the administrator of a long-term care facility to search an individual’s name in the Attorney General’s sex offender database before admitting the individual as a resident of the facility and follow certain protocols if the individual is found to be a sex offender.
• Enabling a chemical dependency counselor to achieve a pathological and problem gambling endorsement on the counselor’s license to enable the counselor to address gambling addiction disorders.
• Requiring the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities to establish a voluntary training and certification program for individuals who provide evidence-based interventions to individuals with an autism spectrum disorder.
• Requiring tattoo parlor operators to ensure that all equipment used to apply tattoos or body piercings is disinfected and sterilized according to Ohio law and regulations.
• Creating the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities Agency within the scope of the Office of Health Transformation law.
• Requiring that repayment of a Clean Ohio Conservation grant be deposited into the Clean Ohio Conservation Fund for return to the natural resource assistance council that approved the original grant application and to be used for the same purpose that a grant was originally approved for.
House Bill 483 will undergo further consideration in the Ohio Senate.