Legislative Update - March 2008

Senate Bill 185 Clears House

William Morris

The Ohio House of Representatives unanimously approved the omnibus public libraries bill, Senate Bill 185, on Wednesday March 12, 2008.  The bill passed both the House and the Senate by unanimous votes and in the end garnered 50 total cosponsors.  To see if your legislator cosponsored the bill check the House version of it here.  The Cosponsors are listed at the top of the first page

The bill would make several changes to the public library law including:

Limiting the number of public libraries eligible for Library and Local Government Support Fund to the current 251,

Renaming the position of library clerk to library fiscal officer

Changing the name of the Library and Local Government Support Fund to the Public Library Fund.

Authorizing libraries to pay library employees by direct deposit.

Correcting an oversight in the recently passed changed to the public records law by adding school district free public libraries to the specified public libraries that must have a library records commission.

Shortening, from four to two weeks, the time period required for advertising for sealed bids for library public improvements exceeding a cost of $25,000.

Codifying the Ohio Public Library Information Network in permanent law.

The bill will now be forwarded to the Governor for his signature and final enactment.

Public Library Levy results: There were 14 Public Library levies on the ballot across the state on Tuesday March 4, 2008.  A total of 11 levies were passed with 3 failing, two of the three failures were new levies. Click here to view table of results as pdf.