Gov. Mike DeWine signed the $11.5 billion two-year transportation budget at the deadline on Monday. Though it passed the House and the Senate unanimously, there were some items that he had been urged to veto.
The transportation budget funds construction projects on interstates, state routes and the Ohio Turnpike. This one will ban counties and townships from operating traffic camera programs, and funds a $150 million study on building commercial truck parking lots on state-owned land. DeWine's office noted there were more than 460 truck crashes in Ohio from 2015 to 2019, blamed on driver exhaustion. Six people were killed in those accidents, and an additional five deaths happened because of trucks illegally parked on shoulders.
But the transportation budget doesn't include Ohio’s re-entry into the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission. That had been added in the House version but cut by the Senate.
DeWine issued no vetoes, leaving in a requirement that people registering to vote at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles must show proof of citizenship, though he has said he didn't want any more election-related laws because he has confidence in the ones that he's signed. He also kept a provision creating a new House leadership position with a salary just under $100,000. That's a pay hike this year for assistant speaker pro tem Phil Plummer (R-Dayton), though an analysis from the Legislative Service Commission notes the Ohio Constitution bans any change in a state lawmaker's compensation from taking effect during their term in office.
The transportation budget must be signed by March 31, but goes into effect on July 1.
