COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio residents would be able to pay for a new driver’s license, registration or plates with a swipe of a credit or debit card under a two-year, $7 billion transportation spending bill passed by the Ohio House of Representatives yesterday.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
Deputy registrars would be required to start accepting payment by July 1, 2016, and are allowed to pass along the costs of accepting those payments, but the bill outlaws any additional fees. Previously, the cost for accepting credit cards could not be easily absorbed by the department, but now it can pass along those costs, spokeswoman Lindsey Bohrer said in an email.
The transportation budget bill passed the House 97-0. A senate version of the transportation budget is being discussed in committee.
The $7 billion spending plan includes about $5.87 billion for the Ohio Department of Transportation, with $5.04 billion earmarked for highway construction and maintenance.
The plan also establishes a legislative task force to look at future funding for transportation in Ohio, requires ODOT to develop metrics to compare data across transportation modes and sets tighter standards for driver-training school instructors.
Under the budget the House passed, ODOT would receive about $1.7 billion a year for highway construction in the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years. That’s down from nearly $2 billion in 2015, which was buoyed by about $300 million leftover from $1 billion the state bonded against future Turnpike tolls.
“Going forward, you’re going to be seeing more of a typical (construction season), like what you’ve seen before we did the turnpike bonding,” said Matt Bruning, an ODOT spokesman. Over the biennium, the bill appropriates $5.04 billion for highway construction and maintenance.
Other provisions of the bill:
Reinstates the Ohio Rail Development Commission and eliminates language governing the division of freight in ODOT
Appropriates $450,000 per year for the Department of Public Safety to purchase driving simulators
Increases from 10 to 25 the percentage of total project cost that a transportation improvement district can receive from the state
Increases the project threshold for which a county engineer can utilize design-build from $1.5 million to $5 million
Provides an additional $114 million over two years for local transportation projects
The House removed large portions of a Department of Public Safety initiative that included new penalties for distracted driving.