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As Introduced
136th
General Assembly
Regular
Session
H. B. No. 409
2025-2026
Representatives Brennan, Brownlee
Cosponsors: Representatives Brent,
Glassburn, McNally
To
amend section 102.031 of the Revised Code
to
prohibit members of the General Assembly from receiving free or
discounted tickets to sporting events.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section
1.
That
section 102.031 of the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:
Sec.
102.031.
(A)
As used in this section:
(1)
"Business associate" means a person with whom a member of
the general assembly is conducting or undertaking a financial
transaction.
(2)
"Contribution" has the same meaning as in section 3517.01
of the Revised Code.
(3)
"Employee" does not include a member of the general
assembly whose nonlegislative position of employment does not involve
the performance of or the authority to perform administrative or
supervisory functions; or whose nonlegislative position of
employment, if the member is a public employee, does not involve a
substantial and material exercise of administrative discretion in the
formulation of public policy, expenditure of public funds,
enforcement of laws and rules of the state or a county or city, or
execution of other public trusts.
(4)
"Professional sporting event" means a sporting or athletic
event played by a team that is a member of the national football
league, the national hockey league, major league baseball, major
league soccer, or the national basketball association.
(B)
No member of the general assembly shall vote on any legislation that
the member knows is then being actively advocated if the member is
one of the following with respect to a legislative agent or employer
that is then actively advocating on that legislation:
(1)
An employee;
(2)
A business associate;
(3)
A person, other than an employee, who is hired under contract to
perform certain services, and that position involves a substantial
and material exercise of administrative discretion in the formulation
of public policy.
(C)
No member of the general assembly shall knowingly accept any of the
following from a legislative agent or a person required to file a
statement described in division (A)(2) of section 102.021 of the
Revised Code:
(1)
The payment of any expenses for travel or lodging except as otherwise
authorized by division (H) of section 102.03 of the Revised Code;
(2)
More than seventy-five dollars aggregated per calendar year as
payment for meals and other food and beverages, other than for those
meals and other food and beverages provided to the member at a
meeting at which the member participates in a panel, seminar, or
speaking engagement, at a meeting or convention of a national
organization to which any state agency, including, but not limited
to, any legislative agency or state institution of higher education
as defined in section 3345.011 of the Revised Code, pays membership
dues, or at a dinner, party, or function to which all members of the
general assembly or all members of either house of the general
assembly are invited;
(3)
A gift of any amount in the form of cash or the equivalent of cash,
or a gift of any other thing of value whose value exceeds
seventy-five dollars. As used in division (C)(3) of this section,
"gift" does not include any contribution or any gifts of
meals and other food and beverages or the payment of expenses
incurred for travel to destinations either inside or outside this
state that is received by a member of the general assembly and that
is incurred in connection with the member's official duties.
(D)
It is not a violation of division (C)(2) of this section if, within
sixty days after receiving notice from a legislative agent that the
legislative agent has provided a member of the general assembly with
more than seventy-five dollars aggregated in a calendar year as
payment for meals and other food and beverages, the member of the
general assembly returns to that legislative agent the amount
received that exceeds seventy-five dollars.
(E)
No
member of the general assembly shall knowingly accept a free or
discounted ticket to a professional sporting event, unless the free
or discounted ticket is given or sold as part of a promotion
generally available to the public, and on the same terms as generally
available to the public.
(F)
The
joint legislative ethics committee may impose a fine of not more than
one thousand dollars upon a member of the general assembly who
violates
division
divisions
(B)
or (E)
of this section.
Section
2.
That
existing section 102.031 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed.