Public Policy Agenda

The Ohio Municipal League’s 2025–2026 Public Policy Agenda is the roadmap that guides our advocacy on behalf of Ohio’s cities and villages during each Ohio General Assembly.

Developed with direct input from municipal elected officials and staff from across the state, the agenda identifies the shared priorities that matter most to the communities we represent and the residents they serve.

 Click here for a PDF of the policy agenda.

2025–2026 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

 Restore Local Government Fund (LGF)

• Return to historical funding levels
• Stem future cuts to LGF revenue sources
• Refund municipal supplemental distributions redirected away from intended municipalities in past budgets

 Ensure the Effectiveness of the Municipal Income Tax

• Defend the integrity of this critical source of revenue for Ohio's municipalities
• Preserve the ability of municipalities to administer their own local tax

 Preserve Home Rule

• Allow Ohio's local leaders to make local decisions
• Avoid statewide preemptions

 No Unfunded Mandates

• Any new state-initiated priority that would have a financial impact on Ohio's municipalities should be fully funded by the state
• Similar to the state's resistance to unfunded mandates from the federal level, municipalities should not receive unfunded mandates from the state
• Municipal budgets are even more constrained than the budgets of their state partners

 Protect Public Safety

• Provide dedicated state funding for police officer training
• Offer grants for the purchase of law enforcement and fire equipment
• Aid in the recruitment and retention of first responders

 Invest in Public Infrastructure

• Increase state funding for municipal transportation infrastructure, including bridges, roads, and public transit
• Provide state funds for local water, sewer, housing and broadband investments

 Partner to Fight Opioid Addiction

• Earmark funds for local public and private health and safety initiatives
• Partner on education and prevention efforts
• Collect and share more data and information with public health and safety officials

CREATING JOBS

OML advocates for policies that help our communities create jobs, advance economic development, and promote sustainable economic growth.

Economic Growth

• Support and facilitate job creation and economic development efforts by municipalities, providing more tools and flexibility to develop and redevelop properties, retain and expand jobs, and promote workforce development in partnership with business.

Annexation

• Support and facilitate the rights of property owners and municipalities to annex property and assure economic development, essential municipal services, and fiscal responsibility.

Housing

• Support and facilitate the development of a broad spectrum of safe, affordable, fair housing and provide municipalities with the tools and authority to ensure property owners maintain their properties.

Land Use Planning, Management, and Control

• Support and facilitate the primacy of municipalities in land use and development matters within and around their jurisdictions to promote effective and sustainable growth, safe buildings and infrastructure, and management of right of way.

Removing Childcare as a Barrier to the Workforce

• Ohio communities are strengthened when everyone who desires to work has the opportunity to do so. We support ideas that have been floated to incentivize public-private partnerships, create tax credits for childcare expenses and philanthropic contributions to childcare programs, make childcare workers and kinship/foster caregivers eligible for publicly funded child­care benefits, and create a tri-share model dividing childcare expenses among willing employers, employees, and the state.

PROTECTING CITIZENS

OML advocates for policies that help our communities protect citizens through responsible public safety and health measures.

Fighting the Opioid Epidemic

• Support and facilitate new funding with state and local cooperation to address the threat of opioid and other harmful drugs through law enforcement, addiction treatment, and public education.

Homeland Security and Emergency Management

• Support and facilitate intergovernmental coordination and cooperation, training, and investment on matters of public safety, health, and emergency management.

Supporting First Responders

• Support and facilitate direct operational and financial assistance to local agencies managing first responders, health services, and infrastructure on homeland security and public emergencies.

Liquor Control

• Support and facilitate cooperation and understanding of municipal recommendations, and on local safety and operating, in the regulation of liquor permits within a municipality.

INVESTING IN PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND CLEAN WATER

OML advocates for policies that help our communities provide clean drinking water, safe and efficient transportation, safe energy, and quality parks through reliable public infrastructure investments and services.

Transportation

• Support and facilitate a safe and efficient transportation system with adequate funding of state infrastructure within municipalities and for effective local public transit systems, and work with municipalities to expand local funding and public-private partnership tools.

Clean Drinking Water

• Support and facilitate local agencies providing clean drinking water and sanitary and stormwater management services, and provide adequate funding to help locals comply with environmental mandates, funding, and regulation to ensure water sources are protected from natural and man-made risks.

Broadband and Smart/Emerging Technology

• Support and facilitate public and private investment in broadband and smart/emerging technology, and respect local authority over the use of local public facilities, lands, and right of ways for these investments.

ADVANCING GOOD GOVERNMENT AND FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

OML advocates for policies that help our communities promote ethical, efficient, and fiscally responsible governance through effective leadership and financial management, guided by home rule.

Pension Accountability

• Ensure financial oversight and accountability of state pension systems, including OP&F and OPERS, through actuarial analyses and stakeholder input to protect taxpayer dollars being paid into the systems.

Fiscal Responsibility

• Support and facilitate municipal management and do not impose unfunded mandates, employment restrictions, or other impairments to local decision making, funding, and governance.

Ethics

• Support and facilitate good-government practices and training of local elected officials and employees on ethics, financing, management, procurement, and customer service.

Cooperation and Innovation

• Support and facilitate municipalities cooperating and sharing services with other public agencies and promoting innovation to improve service delivery, customer service, and cost efficiencies.

Racial Equity

• Advance racial equity in our local communities. We will continue to partner with other government associations and community leaders to identify current and historical racial disparities and help educate local leaders on ways to ensure inclusiveness and equity in communities.