House passes transportation budget

VW independent staff/submitted information

COLUMBUS – The Ohio House of Representatives passed House Bill 23, which is being called a historic state transportation budget for fiscal years 2024-25.

According to State Representative Roy Klopfenstein (R-Haviland), one of the biggest wins was an amendment to raise the statutory limits on force accounts, which creates significant financial challenges for maintaining local roads and bridges.

“Over the past decade, the costs of construction, labor, material, and equipment have greatly increased, but force account limits stay the same,” Klopfenstein said. “Combine this issue with rising inflation costs, and the amount of work counties can perform to upkeep their infrastructure drastically decreases. It was vital for the limits on force accounts to be raised in this budget.”

Other key components of the bill include:

• Investing $2.2 billion for pavement, $717 million for bridges, $360 million for dedicated safety upgrades, and $1.5 billion for large, capacity adding projects like those that are reconfiguring our urban interstates.
• Committing $15 million to establish the Ohio Workforce Mobility Partnership Program, which allows one or more regional transit authorities (RTA) to work together to provide service for the workforce between the territories and support the employment needs of economically significant employment centers.

The legislation now heads to Governor DeWine for his signature.

Rep. Klopfenstein is serving his first term in the Ohio House of Representatives. He represents the 82nd House District, which includes all of Paulding, Putnam and Van Wert counties, and the southern portion of Defiance County.