Governor signs multiple bills into law

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Governor John R. Kasich recently signed the following bills into law:

• Sub. SB 27 (Patton) enacts the “Michael Louis Palumbo, Jr. Act” to provide that a firefighter who is disabled as a result of cancer under certain circumstances is presumed for purposes of the laws governing workers’ compensation and the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund to have incurred the cancer while performing official duties as a firefighter.
• Am. Sub. SB 139 (Seitz, Williams) requires the clerk of a common pleas court to retain a copy of the original trial file when a death penalty is imposed, specifies that there is no page limit on petitions for post-conviction relief in death penalty cases or in appeals of denials of such relief, modifies the time for filing an amended post-conviction relief petition in death penalty cases, provides for depositions and subpoenas during discovery in post-conviction relief proceedings in death penalty cases, and requires a judge hearing a post-conviction relief proceeding in a death penalty case to state specifically in the findings of fact and conclusions of law why each claim was either denied or granted.
• Am. SB 207 (Coley) designates and amends multiple memorial highways and creates multiple special license plates.
• Am. Sub. SB 227 (Bacon) makes various changes to the laws governing the duties and functions of the Attorney General to modify the judgment dormancy law.
• Am. Sub. SB 257 (Seitz, Skindell) creates a presumption of validity for recorded real property instruments, reduces the time period for curing certain defects related to those instruments, provides constructive notice for those instruments, and establishes a procedure by which political subdivisions proposing a tax increment financing (TIF) incentive district must notify affected property owners and permit them to exclude their property.
• Am. SB 273 (Bacon) enacts the Corporate Governance Annual Disclosure Act.
• Sub. SB 319 (Eklund) revises certain laws regarding the regulation of drugs, the practice of pharmacy, the procedures used by pharmacy benefit managers, and the provision of addiction and mental health services.
• Sub. SB 332 (Jones, Tavares) provides for the implementation of recommendations made by the Commission on Infant Mortality, authorizes pharmacists to administer by injection certain prescribed drugs, makes changes to the law permitting controlled desertion of a child not older than thirty days.
• Sub. HB 216 (Pelanda) revises the laws governing advanced practice registered nurses and the Board of Nursing, authorizes podiatrists to order and supervise hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and requires state agencies to assess the prevalence of diabetes and engage in other related activities.
• HB 236 (Blessing, Landis) requires professional engineers to complete continuing professional development hours in professional ethics or rules relevant to engineering or surveying practices.
• Sub. HB 276 (Schuring) authorizes chiropractors to engage in certain activities involving nutrition-related items and therapies, nonprescription drugs, and medical goods and devices.
• Sub. HB 285 (Sprague) authorizes pharmacists to convert prescriptions authorizing refills under certain circumstances.
• Sub. HB 290 (Sprague, Anielski) permits a patient with a terminal condition to be treated with a drug, product, or device that is not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, modifies the laws governing the appointment of a county home superintendent or administrator, and permits health care professionals to earn continuing education credit by providing volunteer health care services to indigent and uninsured persons.
• Am. Sub. HB 341 (Young, Sweeney) requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish towing and storage fees and to review those fees every five years, establishes an after-hours fee for the retrieval of personal items from a motor vehicle that was towed from private property or otherwise upon the order of law enforcement, modifies the civil penalties applicable to violations of the towing law, imposes criminal penalties for the failure of a towing service to obtain a certificate of public convenience and necessity, allows a repair garage, towing service, or storage facility to obtain a salvage certificate of title to a motor vehicle under specified circumstances, alters notice requirements applicable to a salvage auction or pool that obtains a salvage certificate of title for a motor vehicle, establishes a new civil action, and makes other changes to the towing law.
• Sub. HB 347 (McColley, Brinkman) modifies laws governing criminal and civil asset forfeitures, revises the procedures upon a writ of execution of goods claimed by a person other than the defendant, establishes the offense of receiving proceeds of an offense subject to forfeiture proceedings and permits the state to file a civil action against the person who allegedly committed that offense under certain circumstances.
• Sub. HB 378 (Hambley, Rezabek) authorizes law enforcement officers of township police districts and joint police districts, and township constables, serving a population of 50,000 or less to make arrests for motor vehicle-related violations committed on national highways that are not part of the interstate highway system.
• Am. Sub. HB 384 (Schaffer, Duffey) specifies that state institutions of higher education may be subject to performance audits conducted by the Auditor of State, makes changes to the operation of state programs, modifies the state tax laws, and makes capital and operating appropriations. Veto Message: Kasich vetoed certain provisions of Am. Sub. HB 384. The text of his veto message can be found here and following this press release.
• Sub. HB 388 (Scherer) authorizes a court to grant unlimited driving privileges with an ignition interlock device to a first-time OVI offender, expands the penalties related to ignition interlock device violations, modifies the law governing the installation and monitoring of ignition interlock devices, extends the look back period for OVI and OVI-related offenses from six to ten years, modifies the penalties for OVI offenses, and alters the notice requirements applicable to a salvage auction or pool that obtains a salvage certificate of title for a motor vehicle.
• Am. Sub. HB 410 (Rezabek, Hayes) modifies truancy and compulsory school attendance law and specifies that a National Guard scholarship recipient who fails to complete the recipient’s term of enlistment in the National Guard due to enlistment, warrant, commission, or appointment in the United States armed forces is not liable for repayment of the scholarship.
• Am. Sub. HB 432 (Cupp, Rezabek) revises the law governing decedent’s estates by making changes in the Ohio Trust Code, the Probate Law, the Uniform Principal and Income Act, the Transfers to Minors Act, and the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act; authorizes the director or any designee of the Franklin County Guardianship Service Board to act on behalf of the Board on guardianship matters, and permits the Board to charge a reasonable fee for services to wards; and adopts the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act.
• H. B. 436 (Cupp, Rogers) authorizes a judge that grants limited driving privileges to a second-time OVI offender to order the termination of the mandatory immobilization order.
• Sub. H. B. 438 (Patterson) designates the week prior to the week of Thanksgiving Day as “Ohio Public Education Appreciation Week”; requires the health curriculum of each school district to include the instruction on the positive effects of organ and tissue donation; permits school districts not to evaluate school counselors who are on extended leave or have submitted a notice of retirement; modifies the timelines for the sale or lease of real property by school districts; requires the School Facilities Commission to give priority for project funding to school districts that resulted from certain types of transfers, mergers, or consolidations and demonstrate an effective use of facility space as determined by the Commission.
• Am. Sub. H. B. 444 (Blessing) allows A-1-A, A-1c, and certain D liquor permit holders to provide free tasting samples of beer, wine, and spirituous liquor, as applicable, to a person who is 21 years old or older and a paying customer of the permit holder.
• Sub. H. B. 451 (Boose) provides that an individual’s statutory priority to decide whether or not to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment for the individual’s relative is forfeited if the individual is the subject of a temporary protection order or civil protection order and the relative is the alleged victim or if the individual and the relative are married and the parties to a divorce, dissolution, legal separation, or annulment proceeding, to void any objections to a living will made by a person whose statutory priority would be so forfeited, provides that an attorney in fact under a durable power of attorney for health care is competent to make decisions pertaining to life-sustaining treatment, nutrition, or hydration, only if the attorney in fact is not subject to a temporary protection order or civil protection order in which the principal is the alleged victim.
• Sub. H. B. 455 (Patterson, Roegner) authorizes a municipal corporation or township to establish a boarding school zone and a special speed limit within that zone, establishes a 35-mph speed limit for certain highways located in a national park, allows airport and port authorities to conduct meetings by video conference and teleconference, establishes various memorial highways and special license plates.
• Sub. HB 463 (Dever) is relative to the Ohio Uniform Commercial Code, real property foreclosure and escrow transactions, certain partial property tax exemptions, and local ballot initiatives; requires the coverage of autism services; reimburses child abuse and child neglect regional prevention council members for expenses and prohibits conflicts of interest; and amends the statutory procedure for recalling certain municipal officials to include a deadline for filing a petition for recall.
• Am. Sub. H.B. 520 (Schuring, Ramos) revises the law governing the state’s public retirement systems.
• Am. H. B. 532 (Smith, R.) revises code relating to real estate brokers and salespersons.