AFP-Ohio Announces Top Six Priorities for 2018 Lame-Duck Session

The free-market oriented Americans for Prosperity has released its legislative priority list for Ohio’s 132nd General Assembly lame-duck session.

AFP’s Ohio chapter is advocating the passage of House Bills 189 and 342, while opposing House Bills 211, 525, 571, and Senate Bill 128.

AFP-Ohio supports legislation that breaks down barriers to opportunity for Ohioans by reforming occupational licensing laws while advocating for government transparency, said Micah Derry, state director for AFP-Ohio.

He said the group’s activists “stand at the ready to oppose several pieces of legislation that would increase those barriers we’re trying to remove, manipulate the free market, and increase taxes.

“Our organization is ready to make sure that our lawmakers represent the will of all Ohioans during the lame-duck session,” he continued.

Here are the bills that have caught the interest of AFP-Ohio and what the organization is saying about them:

  • House Bill 189 “takes important steps to remove unnecessary barriers to occupational licensing,” according to AFP. The bill, which has bipartisan support, would reduce the required number of training hours for a cosmetologist license from 1,500 hours to 1,000.
  • House Bill 342 “simplifies and updates property-tax levy ballot language that causes confusion at the polls,” a bill AFP says is needed in Ohio.
  • Senate Bill 128 “is a massive bailout that would raise electricity bills on consumers,” and for this reason AFP opposes the legislation. The bill would also encourage the development and implementation of the “smart grid,” which privacy advocates say would impinge on personal privacy of residents by logging, monitoring and tracking all of their power usage in real time.
  • House Bill 211 “would increase government overreach and build barriers to opportunity through occupational licensing” of the home inspection industry.
  • House Bill 525 is legislation that would expand and revise the motion-picture tax credit, taking “an existing bad policy” and making it worse. According to AFP, “this measure manipulates the free market by picking a favored industry and increasing its tax-credit cap.”
  • House Bill 571 “would levy discriminatory taxes on online travel companies which would result in increased costs for Buckeye residents,” which AFP opposes.

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Anthony Accardi is a writer and reporter for The Ohio Star.
Image “Micah Derry” by Americans for Prosperity-Ohio.

 

 

 

 

 

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