Ohio House could vote on energy efficiency bill April 24: Use link to contact your representative
HB 79, a bipartisan bill to help Ohioans reduce their energy consumption and bills, could finally come up for a vote in the Ohio House this Wednesday after years of effort. Here’s a link to email your representative with your views before Wednesday.
House Bill 79 allows utilities to create rebate programs to help ratepayers afford retrofits so they can reduce their electricity consumption and lower their energy bills. It will particularly benefit low-income families at a time of rising electric rates. It will also stimulate growth in well-paying energy efficiency jobs.
“The cleanest energy is the energy you never use, and one of the best ways to cut back on use is through energy efficiency programs. Unfortunately, Ohioans have been without energy efficiency programs since House Bill 6 was passed in 2019. But the passage of House Bill 79 would reinstate these programs,” writes Nolan Rutschilling, energy policy director of the environmental non-profit Ohio Environmental Council (OEC). “Some legislators are still on the fence, so every vote will count.
“This bill represents a rare bipartisan effort that has support from environmental groups, utilities, and consumer advocates,” he adds. “House Bill 79 is an important step towards an Ohio with cleaner air, a resilient grid, and a modern, dynamic workforce in the clean energy sector.”
House Public Utilities Committee will hold a proponent hearing Wednesday morning on Ohio Community Solar pilot: Use one link to email all members
After years of advocacy, community solar for our state finally has momentum, starting with a proponent hearing in the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee Wednesday at 11 am. Championed by Republican sponsors Sharon Ray and Jim Hoops, HB 197 would establish a four-year community solar pilot program in Ohio. You can help by sending an email to the committee members. Read how, below.
The Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) predicts that this bill will catalyze hundreds of small projects across our state. The passage of HB 197 would enable congregations and other community-serving organizations to add solar arrays and invite neighbors to subscribe, reducing their monthly bills and benefitting everyone in the state by reducing air pollution and dependence on fossil fuels. This would be a boon to tenants who are struggling to afford rising electricity costs.
Solar United Neighbors has an excellent summary of the bill including instructions on submitting written testimony for the hearing and a widget to customize and send an email to every member of the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee.
The committee will hold an opponent hearing, probably in early May, but the Chair and sponsors are working hard to get the bill to the House floor for a vote before the summer recess. Constituent letters will be counted. The Senate will be watching to see how strong the support is for this bill. I’ll let you know and ask for your letters again before the floor vote in the House.
Ohio legislators propose policies to increase supply of affordable housing
Following six months of study and hearings across the state by the Senate Select Committee on Housing, Ohio legislators are introducing bipartisan bills to address the statewide shortage of affordable housing.
“Based on their findings in the nearly 100-page document, they realized there is no single solution to tackle the state’s crisis. Instead, they proposed 23 recommendations plus introduced numerous bills to fight the growing challenges,” writes Morgan Trau in the Ohio Capital Journal.
“It includes ideas on increasing opportunities for homeownership, consumer protection for renters and homebuyers, alternative forms of housing, tax policy, increasing density, capacity-building grants for local governments, zoning technical assistance, third-party review of services and modifications to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. You can read the full report here. The recommendations start on page 87.”
Eight Episcopalians representing the Dioceses of Ohio and Southern Ohio attended the April 16 Faith Leaders advocacy lunch at the Statehouse, where sponsors of the bill spoke without giving much detail on their proposals. But Amy Riegel, Excutive Director of COHHIO, the state’s leading housing advocacy nonprofit, reported the big picture of the tragedies we are seeing on across the urban, rural, and suburban communities our congregations serve.
Trau quotes her: “’Communities just have many barriers standing in the way of the development of the housing,’ Riegel said. ‘This would help alleviate those barriers and help fund the positive outcomes.'” Riegel cited devastating Ohio statistics:
- For every 100 people looking for an affordable unit, there are only 40 units available
- A statewide deficit of 267,000 housing units
- Over 68% of extremely low-income individuals are paying more than 50% of their income on housing costs
The proposals include allocating up to $200 million a year for grants to municipalities which implement at least three pro-housing policies from the list. On April 17, Trau gave details on the proposal, from a bill introduced by Reps. Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) and Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon):
“The Ohio Housing Financing Agency (OFHA) will be in charge of the fund, and local governments would need to prove that they are a “pro-housing jurisdiction” to get a cut of the money.This money will come from eliminating non-business credits given to owners of multiple properties,” an idea which will certainly generate pushback from property owners.
Trau continues: “A jurisdiction would be designated as ‘pro-housing’ if it puts forward three of the following policies:
- Have a process to increase rate of permits reviews and grants for housing development by at least 20%
- Have a preapproval process for expedited reviews and granting of permits for developers
- Subsidize or decrease cost of water and sewer hookups for major projects
- Develop “ready to build” sites, such as handling acquisition and rezoning so the developer only needs to finance and build
- Eliminate or reduce parking requirements
- Develop a housing plan that tracks the needs, gaps and potential strategies for housing for the next decade
- Have policies that preserve existing moderate and low-income housing
- Allow for accessory dwelling units
- Have quadplex housing in at least 75% of available land in the jurisdiction
- Reduce at least 50% of existing single-family zoning
- Have density bonuses for developers if they provide a certain amount of low-income housing
- Incentivize modular housing
“Municipalities can only use this funding for repairs for low-income housing, supporting first-time homeowners, enforcing anti-discrimination policies and more. OFHA will be auditing the cities to ensure they follow the regulations.
“Seventy-five percent of the funds will go towards municipalities that adopt at least three policies, allocated based on population. Twenty-five percent of the funds will go toward jurisdictions that adopt at least six policies.”
Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) expressed doubt that these policy proposals would get enacted before the General Assembly’s lame duck session in December. “I don’t think that’s enough time to have the hearings, do something comprehensive, or even not comprehensive,” he said.
Stay tuned!
Governor, legislators trying to tackle child care crisis
We’ve been following the escalating calls from the business community and family advocates to address the critical shortage of child care providers, staff, and the enormous cost to working families who don’t qualify for subsidies due to the very low eligibility cut-off after the Ohio Senate refused anything beyond a tiny increase in eligibility last summer. But now, Republican leaders are proposing several pieces of a solution with bipartisan support, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Governor DeWine annouced a temporary voucher program to cover child care costs for parents making up to 200% of the poverty level, using unspent federal coronavirus money. A new bill, HB 484, would provide over $10 million in state grants to help employers build new child care facilities, renovate existing ones, or partner with other local providers. Twin bills will soon be introduced in the Ohio House and Senate to cut parents’ child care costs by two thirds, though winning the increased state funding will be a steep uphill climb.
“The Republican-sponsored bills, modeled on similar “tri-share” programs in Michigan and some other states, come as the average annual cost of child care in Ohio has soared to nearly $10,000 per infant, worrying state leaders, advocates, and the business community,” reports Jeremy Pelzer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “…employers that voluntarily enroll in the program (which would include the state of Ohio itself), their employees, and the State of Ohio would each pay one-third of those employees’ child care costs.
“The program would be open to families making up to 300% of the federal poverty line, which currently is $77,460 for a family of three and $93,600 per year for a family of four, [bill sponsor Rep. Mark] Johnson, [R-Chillicothe] said in an interview. The program would be administered statewide through regional hubs, which could include nonprofits such as United Way, he said.”
This would be a giant improvement. Currently, Ohio offers child care subsidies only to families making up to 145% of the federal poverty level.
Advocacy updates are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com.
