Pandemic Darlings The pandemic economy, in original documents
Home Source documents Proponent Testimony - House Bill 68, Valerie Pope, Mechanical Contractors Association of Ohio (March 3, 2021)

Proponent Testimony - House Bill 68, Valerie Pope, Mechanical Contractors Association of Ohio (March 3, 2021)

Summary

Proponent testimony of Valerie Pope, Executive Director of the Mechanical Contractors Association of Ohio, on House Bill 68 before the House Commerce and Labor Committee, dated March 3, 2021. The testimony says Ohio has a prompt pay statute setting limits for payments from a public owner to the prime contractor and down the chain, but is silent on when a private owner must pay the prime contractor, so payment can take 60, 90, 120 days. It says the bill would require the private owner to pay the prime contractor within 30 days, and thanks Representatives Cross and Sweeney. It urges the committee to support the bill.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Cite this document

“Proponent Testimony - House Bill 68, Valerie Pope, Mechanical Contractors Association of Ohio (March 3, 2021).” Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2021-03-03-commerce-labor-testimony-hb68promcao-cc0b7f830c/, SHA-256 90dc0231dd1d625e56b37052cdb18af257170488ac4d603d0c1cf221ad6c1d83.

Full text

                             House Bill 68 Proponent Testimony of Valerie Pope

                                   House Commerce and Labor Committee
                                             March 3, 2021

Chairman Stein, Vice-Chair Johnson and Ranking Member Lapore Hagan, thank you for the opportunity to
testify as a proponent for House Bill 68. My name is Valerie Pope and I serve as the Executive Director of the
Mechanical Contractors Association of Ohio. I am pleased to be here today in support of this important piece
of legislation.

The Mechanical Contractors Association of Ohio is a coalition of plumbing, piping, HVAC, and specialty sheet
metal contractors who, through their Local Associations from across the state, monitor and act on the
legislative, judicial, and agency issues that are deemed important to the industry. We are an organization of
small business owners. Our members typically employee five to fifty people in the field in addition to support
staff in the office. Even our largest members typically don’t employ more than 200 field personnel. My
members are the back bone of many local communities and an integral part of the economy performing work
on all types of mechanical contracting jobs from service and renovation to new construction and specialty
fabrication.

As I am sure you know, the construction industry is a highly competitive market and MCAO members
continually strive to provide the best service while offering aggressive pricing in order to secure work.
Unfortunately, they are often left waiting to actually be paid for the work they have completed long after the
job itself is complete.

Ohio currently has a prompt pay statute that clearly sets limits on when a public owner must pay the prime
contractor, when that prime contractor must pay their sub-contractors and those sub-contractors must pay
others down the line. However, on the private side there is a crucial piece missing in the law. While the
exact same limits are in place for payments from the prime contractor to sub-contractors and down-the-line
contractors, our statues are silent on when the private owner must pay the prime contractor. The first step
in the payment chain is missing and this omission means the flow of payment can take 60, 90, 120 days,
leaving my members waiting to be paid.

House Bill 68 is a common-sense fix to the problem we are facing. This legislation would mandate that the
private owner be required to pay the prime contractor within 30 days. The bill mirrors the time limits for
payments found in public work for private work across the board. This will allow for the prime contractor to
pay their subcontractors, equipment providers, and material suppliers as established in current law.

MCAO would like to thank Representatives Cross and Sweeney for their continued work on this bill. This
legislation came about because they heard from contractors in their district who were struggling to make
ends meet simply because they were waiting to get paid for work they have completed.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify on this bill. I urge the committee to support House Bill 68.


                 MCAO • 7250 Poe Ave. Suite 410 • Dayton, Ohio 45414 • 888-294-0084 • www.mcaohio.com

File and source

File
2021-03-03_commerce-labor_testimony_hb68promcao.pdf
Size
252,808 bytes
SHA-256
90dc0231dd1d625e56b37052cdb18af257170488ac4d603d0c1cf221ad6c1d83
Our copy
2021-03-03_commerce-labor_testimony_hb68promcao.pdf
Original
No public link identified.
Back to top