NWOTCA

MEETING DATE:  5/16/07

 

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. at the Yacht Club in Port Clinton, Ohio.

 

Updates on legislation/OML news

Legislation
  • HB24, which would provide a deduction for self-employed individuals paying into health savings accounts, passed in the House and is now in the Senate.  It is not mandatory, but municipalities would have to elect to allow it.  The OML has lobbied in favor of making it mandatory for the sake of consistency.  NWOTCA members are urged to contact their state senators to explain that passage of this bill is not good for municipalities.  Negative aspects include a reduction in tax revenue, difficulty in enforcement, and the creation of more inconsistency between taxing entities.
  • House Bills 3 and 4 are gone for the time-being.  The dollar amounts were so substantial it would have to have been included in the budget.
  • SB117, known as the AT&T bill, is under discussion.  Passage of this bill could possibly discontinue local franchise fees, result in loss of control for municipalities, and create right-of-way issues.  A similar law has already been implemented in Michigan and Indiana and has not been well received.
  • The budget passed in the House.  Under this budget, the Local Government Fund amounts are frozen until January 1, 2008.  The OML pushed to remove the freeze in July 2007 and restore the prior percentage of 3%.
  • HB154 is under discussion.  It would remove the Mayor’s Court for any city with a population under 6,000 and appoint a magistrate.
  • In the Federal government, H.R. 1865 was introduced.  It would create a pilot program to allow certain local tax debt to be collected through the reduction of Federal tax refunds.  Ohio is included as one of the pilot states.

 

OBG Update

  • It was noted that taxpayers have the option of scheduling payments up to 90 days in advance, so if a municipality changes banks, the old bank may receive payments from OBG up to 90 days later.
  • There are still various problems with the Gateway system.  Oak Harbor’s bank gets the money from OBG, but doesn’t know it belongs to the city.  They are charged for each transaction.  Sylvania and some other cities have set it up so that they retrieve the information from OBG and then transmit that information to the bank.
  • Angie will check with Joe Zapotosky to see if he can come to our workshop in Findlay on June 14th.

 

 

 

Administrator/Staff Seminar

Nazareth Hall, located in Grand Rapids, Ohio, looks like the best location for the Fall seminar.  A cost of $25 per person would include the meeting room, a continental breakfast, lunch, and dessert or an afternoon snack.  Andrew (Findlay) made a motion to approve the expenditure for Nazareth Hall and was seconded by Jean (Perrysburg).

  • Topics will be broken out into hour long sessions and will include an overview of the changes to ORC 718 (including a look at Schedule X) that have been instituted over the last few years, how to audit business returns, confidentiality, and dealing with difficult people.  Angie will start working on finding speakers. 
  • We will send out an informational e-mail to all NWOTCA member-cities notifying them of the seminar and requesting an estimate of how many people will be attending from their city, as well as asking for suggestions on other topics they would like to hear discussed.
  • Andrew will check into authorization for CPE credits.
  • The meeting will start at 10:00 a.m. and end at 3:00 p.m.

 

Upcoming Events

Tax Workshop will be held on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. in Findlay at The Cube, 3430 N. Main Street.

 

OML Income Tax Seminar is at the Marriott Northwest in Dublin on Wednesday, July 11th through Friday, July 13th.

 

Next regular NWOTCA meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 19th at The Barn Restaurant in Archbold.  We will try to have a demonstration on companies providing trace services (Accurint, CBC, Haynes).