COLUMBUS, Ohio — After coming to an agreement regarding “force accounts” the Ohio House and Senate passed the state’s transportation budget.
The transportation portion of the budget passed with bipartisan support on Wednesday.
What You Need To Know
- Force accounts set a specific dollar amount to a threshold, local governments need to stay within this amount while working on public work projects
- Transportation portion of the budget passes House and Senate
- Many groups say the force account threshold was too low for a long time
Force accounts set a specific dollar amount state law requires local governments to stay under when working on projects like road or bridge repairs.
If the project is expected to exceed that dollar amount, local governments are required by law to allow independent contractors to bid on the project. However, when they exceed certain dollar amounts that is also known as, ‘a force account,’ and some people on the ground argue the dollar threshold is too low.
Hence, the reason House Bill 23 has been up for debate because of the way force accounts work here in Ohio.
“If not adjusted for inflation, the local governments’ ability to use their workforce and resources to do projects diminishes every year because of inflationary costs,” said Chris Bauserman, Delaware County, Engineer.
The need to raise the threshold on force accounts was at the heart of a disagreement between the House and Senate before they finally came to a compromise. Some lawmakers advocated for local governments to create their own threshold. While others worried doing so could take jobs away from independent contractors.
In the final transportation budget, House and Senate members agreed to raise the threshold to match inflation.
“Watching the legislative process unfold and how we got to this was pretty complicated and, at times, ideologically blind. But I think we I think the process in the end worked,” said Bauserman.
As for contractors, they’re happy there’s still a limit in place, and they are glad the state is setting it.
“There becomes fewer opportunities for our small contractors and small businesses around the state of Ohio to engage in that work,” said Chris Runyan, President of the Ohio Contractors Association. “So the concern arises, you know, how that cap goes up and the opportunities that are provided because it really impacts our smaller companies.”
Runyan said right now the current competitive bid requirements are too low, suggesting that it could lead to more expensive projects being on counties’ back-burners. He says increasing the threshold by 5% each year, which is what lawmakers landed on, is better than a 3% jump every other year.
“We find a place of good compromise. It’s something I believe that we as an industry can live with,” Runyan said.
House Bill 23 will now head to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk for a signature.
