OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
S.B. 41* Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for S.B. 41’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Reported by House Economic and Workforce Development
Primary Sponsor: Sen. Roegner
Effective Date:
Carla Napolitano, Attorney and various other LSC staff
SUMMARY
Building appeals
▪ Allows for expedited appeals to the Ohio Board of Building Appeals and county and
municipal boards of building appeals.
Battery-charged fences
▪ Eliminates state law requirements concerning the installation and operation of
battery-charged fences on private nonresidential property.
▪ Prohibits local governments from adopting or enforcing battery-charged fence
regulations that expressly, implicitly, or functionally prohibit the installation, operation,
or use of battery-charged fences that meet certain criteria.
Governmental entity public way fees
▪ Permits a public utility subject to Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) jurisdiction to file
an application with PUCO for the accounting authority to classify certain costs related to
regulations regarding the use of a right of way as regulatory assets subject to recovery.
▪ Defines “right of way” as the surface of, and the space within, through, on, across,
above, or below any land designated for public use that is owned or controlled by a
governmental entity and includes a municipal corporation public way, but is not a
private easement.
*This analysis was prepared before the report of the House Economic and Workforce Development
Committee appeared in the House Journal. Note that the legislative history may be incomplete.
December 11, 2024
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
▪ Requires PUCO to authorize such accounting authority as may be reasonably necessary
to classify the cost as a regulatory asset.
▪ Requires PUCO to establish a charge and collection mechanism permitting the utility’s
full recovery of a public way fee if its treatment as a regulatory asset is determined to be
not practical or if deferred recovery would impose a hardship on the utility or its
customers.
▪ Exempts cost recovery authorized as a regulatory asset as described above from any
provision of law or agreement establishing price caps, rate freezes, or rate increase
moratoria.
▪ Requires PUCO to process applications for classifying the above costs as regulatory
assets in the same manner as applications for the recovery of certain other municipal
public way fees as regulatory assets.
▪ Specifies that a final order regarding a recovery mechanism authorized under the bill
must provide for retroactive adjustment as PUCO determines appropriate.
▪ Clarifies, for purposes of authorizing regulatory assets related to the use or occupancy
of a municipal public way, costs incurred by a public utility because of municipal
corporation regulation (instead of local regulation as in current law) of its use or
occupancy.
Purchase agreements and workers’ compensation experience
transfers
▪ Specifies that an employer transferring a business to another employer is not required
to provide a copy of a purchase agreement to the Administrator of Workers’
Compensation for the Administrator to complete a transfer of experience if there is a
family relationship or other similar connection between the predecessor and the
successor.
Pay Stub Protection Act
▪ Requires an employer, on the employer’s regular paydays, to provide each of the
employer’s employees with a statement or access to a statement of the employee’s
earnings and deductions for the pay period.
▪ Requires an employer who does not provide the statement or access to the statement
at the time required under the bill to provide the statement not later than ten days after
receiving an employee’s request for the statement.
▪ Permits an employee who does not receive the requested statement within ten days of
requesting it to report the violation to the Director of Commerce, who must notify the
employer in writing of the violation.
▪ Requires, if an employer receives a notice from the Director, the employer to post the
notice or a copy of the notice in a conspicuous place on the employer’s premises for ten
days.
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Waste energy recovery systems
▪ Includes a facility that produces and uses steam, or transfers it, from recovered waste
heat from a manufacturing process to another manufacturing process or to generate
electricity as a “waste energy recovery system” for purposes of the renewable energy
resource portfolio standards, renewable energy credits, advanced energy program, and
energy efficiency program under the Competitive Retail Electric Service Law.
Broadband Pole Replacement and Undergrounding Program
▪ Modifies the reimbursement formula under the Broadband Pole Replacement and
Undergrounding Program as follows:
 For actual and reasonable costs to perform a pole replacement or mid-span pole
installation, reimbursements are equal to the lesser of $7,500 multiplied by the
number of pole replacements and mid-pole installations in an application, or 75% of
the total eligible costs therein.
 For actual and reasonable undergrounding costs, reimbursements must not exceed
75% of the total eligible costs, except that the reimbursements cannot exceed the
amount that would be available if the applicant did a pole replacement or mid-span
pole installation instead.
▪ Adds undergrounding costs needed because the process for obtaining access to poles is
causing, or is reasonably anticipated to cause, a delay that impacts the applicant’s ability
to meet required deadlines to those costs that are eligible for reimbursement under the
Program.
▪ Securities Law Revises a provision of the Ohio Securities Law that allows a corporation
to recover profit derived from the sale of securities by a person who proposes to, or
publicly discloses the intention of, acquiring control of a corporation.
▪ Limits application of that remedy to situations in which the person selling the securities
engages in “manipulative practices,” by staging a hostile takeover bid to manipulate a
corporation or committing any other act that the Ohio Division of Securities defines as
manipulative.
▪ Specifies that the General Assembly’s intent in amending the statute is to clarify, and
not alter, the scope of conduct or practices that may give rise to the remedy.
Sales tax exemption
▪ Allows a purchaser to provide three years of filed federal farm profit and loss forms to
the Tax Commissioner to verify that certain vehicles and trailers are primarily used in
agriculture, and thus exempt from sales and use tax.
▪ Allows the Tax Commissioner to issue certificates, which may be provided to a vendor,
verifying that a consumer has filed three years of those forms with the Commissioner.
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As Reported by House Economic and Workforce Development
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Building appeals .............................................................................................................................. 4
Requests and scheduling for expedited appeals ......................................................................... 5
Fees for expedited appeals ......................................................................................................... 5
Rules ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Battery-charged fences ................................................................................................................... 6
Governmental entity public way fees ............................................................................................. 7
Accounting authority for cost-recovery purposes ...................................................................... 7
Cost recovery as a regulatory asset not possible ........................................................................ 8
Cost recovery not subject to regulation ...................................................................................... 8
Application processing ................................................................................................................ 8
Municipal corporation public way regulation costs ....................................................................... 8
Purchase agreements and workers’ compensation experience transfers ..................................... 9
Pay Stub Protection Act .................................................................................................................. 9
Request for statement and notice of violation ......................................................................... 10
Waste energy recovery systems ................................................................................................... 10
Renewable energy ..................................................................................................................... 10
Advanced energy ....................................................................................................................... 10
Energy efficiency ....................................................................................................................... 11
Broadband Pole Replacement and Undergrounding Program ..................................................... 11
Reimbursement formula ........................................................................................................... 11
Eligible undergrounding costs ................................................................................................... 12
Securities Law ............................................................................................................................... 12
Agricultural use sales tax exemption qualifications ..................................................................... 13
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Building appeals
The Ohio Board of Building Appeals hears appeals to orders enforcing the Ohio Building
Code, the Residential Code of Ohio (the building code for residential structures), the Ohio Fire
Code, the Ohio Elevator Code, and the Ohio Boiler Pressure and Vessel Code. The Board of
Building Appeals may also certify county and municipal boards of building appeals to hear
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appeals to orders enforcing the Ohio Building Code and the Residential Code of Ohio. 1 The bill
provides for expedited appeals to these boards.
Requests and scheduling for expedited appeals
Under current law, when a party appeals an order, the Board of Building Appeals, or the
relevant county or municipal board, is required to schedule the appeal hearing, no sooner than
seven days and no later than 15 days after the appeal is requested. 2 The bill allows appellants
to request expedited appeals. If an expedited appeal is requested when the appeal itself is
made, the bill requires the board to both:
▪ Commence the appeal within one day after the request is made, excluding Saturdays,
Sundays, and legal holidays;
▪ Hold a hearing within five days after the request is made, excluding Saturdays, Sundays,
and legal holidays.
If an expedited appeal is not requested at the outset, the person who requested the
appeal may later request that the remainder of the appeal be expedited if certain conditions
are present. Those conditions are that, during the course of the appeal, the board issues a
continuance of the hearing, such that no decision is made and additional evidence is requested
in order to continue the proceeding. In those circumstances, the person may request that any
follow-up hearing be expedited within five days of the issue of the continuance, excluding
Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. The follow-up hearing then must be held within five
days of the request.
Generally, under continuing law, the Board of Building Appeals, and a county or
municipal board, must issue its decision within 30 days of an appeal hearing. The bill states that
this deadline does not apply to expedited appeals, but does not provide an alternative
deadline.3
Under the bill, the board conducting an expedited hearing must provide all parties a
notice before conducting the hearing. The board may hold the hearing electronically.4
Fees for expedited appeals
Under continuing law, the Board of Building Appeals is permitted to establish
reasonable fees for appeals, based on actual costs for administration of filing and processing
and not exceeding $200 (the current fee is $200). County and municipal boards of building
appeals are also permitted to establish reasonable, cost-based, fees for appeals that do not
exceed $100. The bill allows the Board of Building Appeals, and county and municipal boards, to
1 R.C. 3781.19 and 3781.20; Ohio Administrative Code (O.A.C.) 4101:13-1-04, not in the bill.
2 R.C. 119.07, not in the bill.
3 R.C. 3781.19.
4 R.C. 3781.21(A) and (C).
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establish additional fees for expedited appeals. Those fees cannot exceed $500 for each day the
appeal is pending or $1,000 in total.5
Rules
The Board of Building Standards is authorized to adopt rules implementing the bill’s
expedited appeal process.6
Battery-charged fences
Current law includes numerous safety standards concerning the installation and use of
battery-charged fences on private nonresidential property. Furthermore, the law expressly
authorizes counties, townships, and municipal corporations to (1) impose additional regulations
that do not conflict with state law, (2) require a permit or fee for the use of a battery-charged
fence, and (3) prohibit battery-charged fences that do not meet state law requirements. The bill
eliminates the state safety standards and limits the authority of local governments to impose
safety standards of their own.
Under the bill, no county, township, or municipal corporation may adopt or enforce an
ordinance, order, resolution, or regulation that “expressly, implicitly, or functionally” prohibits
the installation, operation or use of a battery-charged fence that meets certain conditions. The
bill does not require battery-charged fences to comply with those conditions. It eliminates all
state-level safety standards. Instead, the bill establishes a safe harbor in which certain
battery-charged fences are not subject to local regulation. The table below compares the safe
harbor conditions established by the bill to the safety standards prescribed by current law.
Comparison of Safety Standards to Safe Harbor
Safety standards Safe harbor
(current law) (under the bill)
The fence must be connected to a Same.
monitored alarm system.
The fence must have a Similar, but does not need to meet
battery-operated energizer that is the standards from the International
powered by a commercial storage Electrotechnical Commission.
battery that is not more than 12 volts
of direct current, and that meets the
standards set forth by the
International Electrotechnical
Commission.
5 R.C. 3781.19, 3781.20(B), 3781.21(B); O.A.C. 4101:13-1-13, not in the bill.
6 R.C. 3781.21(D).
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Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office