New Ohio Legislation Begins Its Paths

The first batch of Ohio legislation for the term was introduced this week with maybe a couple more notable:


In the Campaigns & Elections category House Journal Resolution 2 (HJR 2), seeks "To set forth in the Constitution of the State of Ohio a specific right to vote and requirements attendant thereto," while HB 13 would "require a provisional ballot to be remade and counted for the offices, questions, and issues for which the provisional voter was eligible to vote, if the election official assisting that provisional voter failed to direct the provisional voter to the correct precinct, and to revise the portion of the provisional ballot affirmation required to be completed by the election official." HB 21 would "establish a process to permit an elector who is confined to a health care facility under isolation to vote with the assistance of bipartisan board of elections employees, and to permit the elector's facsimile signature, provided by the hospital, to be used for signature verification purposes."

HB 14 deals with "a school district's withholding or transfer to another district or school of the records of a child who was alleged or adjudicated an abused, neglected, or dependent child," while HB 18 would provide an avenue by which "the director of public safety, in consultation with the superintendent of public instructions, shall develop a process through which the board of education of a school district, the governing authority of a community school, or the board of trustees of a college-preparatory boarding school may submit an application for federal or other financial assistance in the installation of metal detectors at the entrances to one or more classroom buildings of the district or school should the district or school decide, at its own discretion, to install metal detectors."

House Bills 1 and 2, respectively, would require a local workforce investment area to use OhioMeansJobs as the local workforce investment area's job placement system, to rename county one-stop systems, and to make other changes to Ohio's Workforce Development Provisions, while HB 2 amends Section 4141.29 of the Ohio Revised Code to require an unemployment compensation claimant to register with OhioMeansJobs to be eligible for unemployment compensation benefits and to require a claimant to contact a local one-stop office beginning with the eighth week of filing for unemployment compensation benefits.

OhioMeansJobs is the electronic job placement system operated by the state's department of job and family service which the Kasich administration has announced it intended to be improving as part of its work-force development system, including a rebranding of the one-stop employment centers scattered around the state. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services used a $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to expand and enhance the OhioMeansJobs website last summer and create a new, online career counseling system. Only Los Angeles received a grant as large as the $12 million the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services was awarded.