Hours before the deadline, members of the Ohio House and Senate agreed to a two year budget agreement for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. Because the budget was passed so near to the deadline, lawmakers did approve a temporary budget maintaining state funding at fiscal year 2023 levels for several days to give the Ohio Legislative Service Commission time to update the bill based upon the lawmakers agreed changes, and to provide Governor DeWine time to review the bill before issuing line item vetoes and giving final agreement to the budget.
The issue of most importance to Greater Ohio Policy Center (GOPC), the Brownfield Remediation Program, was funded as part of the state budget. While this is exciting news, less exciting are changes which will be made to the program. Under changes made to both the brownfield and demolition programs, counties which a population of less than 100,000 residents must have a lead applicant submit applications on behalf of the county. The lead applicant will be approved by the Department of Development (ODOD) based upon a recommendation from the county commissioners. Counties with a population greater than 100,000 and with a land bank will have the land bank serve as the lead applicant. If the county does not have a land bank, then the commissioners will make a recommendation to ODOD as to who should be the lead applicant.
Private developers continue to be excluded from the published list of sub-recipients of grantees based on the language included in the budget. The approved language also earmarks $1 million per year for each county. This will reduce the amount of competitive funding available for all counties to only $87 million per year.
GOPC remains concerned that this change will result in diminished opportunities for rural counties under the programs “first come, first serve” application process. The unnecessary burden of requiring a lead applicant for all program funding will severely restrict who has access to brownfield funding and slow the progress of remediating blighted brownfields sites across Ohio.
GOPC will continue to work with ODOD to ensure private developers continue to have access to the brownfield program. We know from our work that often times they are best positioned to take on the work of remediating and redeveloping brownfields, and this extra red tape of required development agreements and lead applicants must not get in the way of fulfilling the mission of the brownfield program.
There were a number of other changes that lawmakers agreed to in the conference report. Below is a summary of changes GOPC was following:
All Ohio Future Fund - The budget earmarks $917 million for the program for economic development projects, electric utility infrastructure development. However, water and sewer projects have been removed from the eligibility of funds.
State Low Income Housing Tax Credit (SLIHTC) - The budget authorizes the creation of a state low income housing tax credit, and sets aside $10 million per year for the program to be administered the the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.
Ohio Housing Finance Agency - Retains the organization rather than transferring its functions over to the Ohio Department of Development and the proposed Governor’s Office of Housing Transformation.
Welcome Home Ohio Program - Creates the new Welcome Home Ohio program to provide $100 million in grants to Ohio’s land banks to fund the rehabilitation or construction of residential property.
Single Family Housing Tax Credit - Provides $50 million in nonrefundable tax credits against the insurance premiums, financial institutions, or income tax for investments in the development and construction of affordable single-family housing. The program is to be administered by OHFA and credits are reserved until June 30, 2027.
Home Ownership Savings Accounts - Authorizes an income tax deduction beginning on January 1, 2024 for amounts contributed to a homeownership savings linked deposit account ($5,000 per individual or $10,000 per couple) with a lifetime maximum of up to $25,000.
Rental Registries - Removed a Senate provision that would have prohibited a municipality that creates or maintains a registry of rental properties from using state funds or charging a fee to support the registry.
The budget will take effect immediately upon the approval of Governor DeWine, with other provisions becoming effective 90 days after the bills effective date.