COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio lawmakers continue their race to pass bills, focusing this week on adoption, safety and pension reform.
"It's lame duck," House Speaker Jason Stephens said with a laugh. "I don't want to say anything can happen in lame duck, but..."
As the speaker said, now is crunch time.
Every remaining bill that doesn’t get passed during the lame duck session dies. Lawmakers would have to go through the same process starting next year to get their bill passed.
Our first iteration of things to watch this lame duck session:
RELATED: Ohio lawmakers hurry to pass bills during lame duck session
As of Tuesday, we know what is going to be on the House floor, but not the Senate. Here are a few major pieces of legislation I'm watching this week.
A bill expected to get sent to the governor's desk is House Bill 5, which would modernize the entire adoption process.
"Any kind of adoption, we are updating and streamlining and adding more resources and trying to just facilitate the process so that it better supports kids, birth parents and adoptive parents," state Rep. Rachel Baker (D-Cincinnati) said.
She and state Rep. Sharon Ray (R-Wadsworth) introduced the legislation that expedites the adoption process and provides financial support for birth mothers, among dozens of other provisions. The bill passed unanimously in the House and the Senate, but the senators made slight changes. It now goes back to the House floor for a vote Wednesday.
School bus safety is another priority for lawmakers. State Reps. Bernie Willis (R-Springfield) and Rich Brown (D-Canal Winchester) are going through the hearing process for H.B. 279. It has all different types of tools to help schools.
"It's doing some elevating of the standards around our school buses in the same way that we establish school safety zones around our schools with criminal penalties," Willis said.
The wide-ranging reform also includes a safety grant program and cameras that record outside the buses for safety violations of other drivers.
RELATED: Gov. DeWine wants Ohio to create grant program to fund increased school bus safety, train drivers
There are several other bus safety bills being heard, as well.
Another bill on the House floor this week would update state law for student-athletes.
State Reps. Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon) and Jay Edwards (R-Nelsonville) introduced H.B. 660, which would allow universities to directly pay student-athletes for their name, image and likeness.
The NIL bill was introduced just before Gov. Mike DeWine signed an executive order accomplishing many parts of 660, but because it will eventually expire, the lawmakers want to have the stability of law to protect athletes.
"We want to continue and codify so that all of our universities when they're setting up their budgets for the next academic year, they know how they can recruit, how to make sure they can keep talent and make sure that our student-athletes are able to succeed both on and off the field," Mathews said.
Throughout the week, lawmakers are hearing a handful of bills dedicated to increasing accountability for the private school voucher system.
H.B. 407, the one most likely to pass, was introduced by state Reps. Gayle Manning (R-North Ridgeville) and Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati).
Originally, it included provisions that would have required private schools participating in the EdChoice voucher program to submit an annual report to the state showing how state funds are being spent while also reporting information about the family income of each voucher scholarship student.
RELATED: Provisions removed from Ohio bill that would add accountability to private schools, voucher program
But state Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Ashtabula) — the lawmaker who received international backlash for telling me that the Holocaust should be taught from "both sides" in school — stripped those provisions from the legislation.
"We're talking about money, close to a billion dollars of taxpayer dollars, going out the door 'allegedly' to pay for education, to pay for tuition," House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington said). "We have no accountability or standards for how the money is actually spent."
When I asked Stephens about financial transparency, he agreed with his Democratic counterpart.
"It's fair if taxpayers are funding a service that there should be some accountability," Stephens responded.
The remaining several voucher bills are all proposed by Democrats, and it is unclear if they will even get another hearing.
And the most contentious bill on the floor this week — H.B. 296. This is a pension bill I've been covering extensively.
State Reps. Cindy Abrams (R-Harrison) and Thomas Hall (R-Madison Twp.) introduced it to increase employer contributions to the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund, raising city input from 19.5% to 24% for police in a span of six years. It would also raise employee contributions from 12.25% to 12.5% in 2030.
RELATED: Although understaffed, Akron mayor rejects bill meant to fix police understaffing
"We want to make sure that we are providing good security for our police and fire and our first responders because they are the glue that holds our communities together," Stephens said.
But cities claim this bill will bankrupt them, especially with the slashing of the local government fund. Russo supports the bill but wants to add an amendment on the floor to help the municipalities.
"If we're going to ask the cities to do this at the same time that we've been reducing the local government fund... Maybe the state should either increase the local government fund or cover some of the share of the cost of implementation of this," Russo said.
The opponents of 296 are ramping up. The Ohio Mayors Alliance and Ohio Municipal League held a press conference Monday to urge lawmakers to reject it.
On Tuesday, I obtained a letter that the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Business Roundtable and the Ohio Manufacturers Association sent to senators urging them to pause the conversation.
"Sub. H.B. 296 delays efforts to deploy more resources, minus a tax increase, solely to bolster a pension fund that may or may not need these contributions," the letter states. "The Ohio General Assembly and its Ohio Retirement Study Council should reexamine the need for additional contributions considering recent collectively bargained contracts that have provided additional wages to public safety officers, and in turn, added more funds to the pension balance sheet. Additionally, more time should be given to study the fiscal ramifications to local jurisdictions who must shoulder the burden of this state level mandate."
To read more in-depth about the arguments, click here.
The lawmakers have full schedules for the next few weeks to accomplish all their priorities — but knowing the legislature, anything can change what they accomplish.
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
