COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio lawmakers worked for two days to pass as many bills as they could before going on summer recess. Here are some of the bigger items that passed — and failed — overnight.
Passed
Voter photo ID
Senate Joint Resolution 10 is being sent to the November ballot, and House Bill 472 will go to the governor's desk.
S.J.R. 10 is a constitutional amendment that will ask Ohioans if photo ID should be shown to vote. This is already state law.
H.B. 472 would require a photocopy of an ID in order to vote by mail.
RELATED: Voter photo ID amendment on Nov. ballot in Ohio
Medicaid reform
S.B. 315 is a bipartisan bill that makes changes to the Medicaid system in order to better catch and prosecute fraud. The bill also requires Ohio's SNAP program to begin using chip-enabled EBT cards.
It is going to the governor.
RELATED: Ohio lawmakers backtrack after trying to restrict Medicaid home healthcare
Capital budget
S.B. 450 is the nearly $4 billion budget dedicated to capital infrastructure and community projects.
It is going to the governor.
RELATED: Ohio communities set to receive millions for local projects supporting arts, infrastructure
Encouraging lockbox storage for guns
S.B. 273 allows law enforcement agencies to voluntarily store firearms for gun owners struggling with mental health issues.
It is going to the governor.
Driving permit
S.B. 419 lowers the age at which a teen gets a probationary or temporary driver's license from 15½ to 15. However, a driver must still be 16 to get a true driver's license.
This passed the Senate and is being sent to the House.
Sex offense statute of limitations
S.B. 421 would raise the statute of limitations from one year to five years for a civil case for victims of sexual offenses.
This passed the Senate and is being sent to the House.
Sex offender location prohibition
S.B. 422 would prohibit sex offenders from knowingly entering a school, preschool, or child care center or attending their sanctioned activities.
Under current law, only living within 1,000 feet of any school or childcare premises is illegal.
This passed the Senate and is being sent to the House.
Regulate ticket sales
House Bill 563 would require the total price of tickets to be included upfront, mandate the seller disclose if it isn’t affiliated with the official platform, allow the state to go after scammers and more.
This passed the House and is being sent to the Senate.
RELATED: Ohio lawmakers aim to put guardrails on Ticketmaster, resellers
Child care regulations
H.B. 647 would give authority to the attorney general to investigate and prosecute alleged child care fraud, allow the state to immediately suspend a license under suspicion of fraud and provide money for enhanced data analytics for reviews.
This passed the House and is being sent to the Senate.
RELATED: Ohio GOP lawmakers want daycare cameras to combat 'fraud' that hasn't been proven
Post-release control
H.B. 667 is a bill in honor of murder victims Reagan Tokes and Patrick Heringer. Among other provisions, it gives judges increased discretion to send repeat or problem offenders to prison, as well as requires more reporting to the Law Enforcement Automated Data System (LEADS).
This passed the House and is being sent to the Senate.
What didn't pass
Data center regulations
H.B. 646 created new rules and standards for data centers, but lawmakers were unable to pass it.
It limited the size of new sales tax breaks for projects. Currently at 100%, it would go down to 50%.
"We don't think we should be granting tax exemptions to multi-billion dollar corporations, especially when many of them are already coming here to build these data centers anyway, because of the contract that was entered into several years ago," House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said, referencing a popular sentiment from his caucus.
One of the major complaints from environmental groups was the water usage. The bill requires that facilities utilize a closed-loop water system or use “best practices for water conservation and efficiency.”
Additionally, data centers are required to report any "anomalies" detected through their water quality monitoring systems.
Another big topic is transparency, and companies asking public officials to sign non-disclosure agreements. It didn't do anything major to tackle that.
One of the provisions that everyone seemed to like was a regulation that created an electric rate class for data centers, trying to ensure that the cost of generation, transmission and distribution is paid by the companies.
Child marriage ban
S.B. 341 would ban child marriages in Ohio. After months of being stagnant, it passed out of committee unanimously. It didn't make it to the full Senate floor for a vote.
Before 2019, Ohio had no minimum age to get married. Although the state had promoted 16 for girls to be able to be wed, there were exceptions for any age if the child received parental and judicial consent.
Still, 17-year-olds are able to marry someone up to four years older than them, as long as a juvenile court signs off on it.
"We had a lot of other bills that we're going to pass that got out of the committee this week," Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said to me when I asked why it didn't make the floor. "And again, you guys know my feeling, I was pretty clear about it last week. It's probably going to be something that's going to make the floor at some point this session."
McColley has said previously that he is supportive of ending child marriage, even as the bill stalls. The holdup is several Republican members who don't want to get involved in "people's personal business," some told me.
RELATED: Ohio GOP leaders differ on whether child marriage should be a 'debate'
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