This information submitted by the Ohio Vehicle Leasing Association:

The Ohio House of representatives Finance and Appropriations Committee adopted Monday, March 12, an amendment to H.B. 67 that would allow vehicle rental companies and lessors to provide “limited information” to municipalities attempting to issue traffic citations when a vehicle was not under control of the rental company or lessor.

The OVLA will be reviewing the language after House action and before it starts to move through the Ohio Senate.

Similar language was a part of a bill regulating traffic cameras that was vetoed by former Gov. Bob Taft. That language was supported by The OVLA and is similar to that pertaining to parking tickets the Association got adopted as law in the early 1980s.

The point was one of 24 covered in a massive amendment to the bill -- the budget for the Ohio Department of Transportation and Ohio Public Safety Department -- which is scheduled for a full vote on the House floor at the 11 a.m. session today, March 13. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles, as well as the Highway Patrol, EMS, and homeland security are a part of the Public Safety Department.

Other issues of interest to OVLA members contained in the massive amendment forced through by the committee’s Republican majority:

•Requires the Department of Public Safety director to ask the federal government for an extension from May 2008 to December 2009 for Ohio’s compliance with the National Real ID Act.

•Redirected $0.21 from the existing $5 vehicle certificate title fee to the Highway Operating Fund; the existing title fee remains unchanged.

•Permits the use of a driver’s license or official state ID card as “acceptable alternatives” to a Social Security Card number.