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Ohio Senate Bill 225 Paves the Way for Greater Investment in Opportunity Zones and Historic Districts

Client Alert

Ohio Senate Bill 225 is poised to make dramatic enhancements to certain tax credit programs in Ohio, specifically those surrounding investments in “Opportunity Funds” and historic buildings. Signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine in June 2022, the Bill is positive news for real estate developers working to revitalize Ohio communities with investment and rehabilitation projects. 

Features include: 

Tax Credits for Opportunity Zones 

  • Awarded tax credits cannot exceed $75 million for the fiscal biennium beginning July 1, 2021, ending June 30, 2023; $50 million for fiscal year 2024; or $25 million for each fiscal year thereafter. 

  • A critical element of the Bill is that the term “taxpayer” is differentiated from the term “person,” allowing non-taxpaying entities to take advantage of the program as well as Ohio residents and taxpayers who have different qualifications. 

  • The tax credit equals 10-percent of the amount of the person’s investment in the fund that the fund invested during the immediately preceding investment period in Ohio opportunity zones, with a $2 million cap for all applicants.  

  • The investment period is the six-month period from January 1 to June 13, or from July 1 to December 31. 
  • In 2021, there were $10 million in tax credits left over; therefore the increase in funding incentivizes investors to contribute to low-income communities and opportunity zones with a high probability of being awarded credits. 

Tax Credits for the Restoration of Historic Buildings 

  • There is a $120 million limit on rehabilitation tax credits for 2023 and 2024, and $60 million of rehabilitation tax credits for each year thereafter. This allocation is doubled from the current $60 million cap. 

  • Total tax credits for any single project cannot exceed $10 million for any year. 

  • The certificate holder may claim a tax credit equal to 35-percent of the dollar amount indicated on the tax credit certificate if any county, township, or municipal corporation within which the project is located has a population of less than 300,000 according to the 2020 census, and 25-percent otherwise. 
  • For rehabilitations not exceeding 24 months, a rehabilitation tax credit certificate cannot be issued before the rehabilitation is complete. For rehabilitations not exceeding 60 months, a rehabilitation tax credit certificate cannot be issued before a stage of rehabilitation is complete.  

  • This program will be critical for continued investments by developers in low-income areas and will also serve in further expanding Ohioans’ pride through revitalization of Ohio’s most important landmarks. 

For more information about this opportunity, please contact Jason Butterworth at jabutterworth@bmdllc.com.


Property Owner Protection from Tax Valuation Challenges

New legislation provides significant new protections for commercial property owners against challenges to valuation primarily by local school boards and prohibiting side agreements to avoid tax valuation changes. The Ohio Legislature has approved House Bill 126 which will go into effect July 2022 but will effectively apply to the 2023 tax valuation year.

No Surprises Act Update: The IDR Portal is Open

The No Surprises Act (“NSA”) became effective January 1, 2022, and has been the subject of lawsuits and criticisms since its inception. The goals of the No Surprises Act are to shield patients from surprise medical bills, provide to uninsured and self-pay patients good faith estimates of charges, and create a process to resolve payment disputes over surprise bills, which arise most typically in emergency care settings. We have written about Part I and Part II of the NSA previously. This update concerns the Independent Dispute Resolution (“IDR”) procedure created by Part II but applicable to claims covered by Part I. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) finally opened the Portal for providers to submit disputes to the IDR process following some updated guidance regarding the arbitration process itself.

Updated FAQs for the No Surprises Act - Good Faith Estimates

The No Surprises Act (“NSA”) became effective January 1, 2022. Meant to protect consumers from surprise medical bills, the new law is good for consumers, but vexatious for health care providers and facilities. One particular source of frustration is the operationalization of the Good Faith Estimate (“GFE”) requirement, governed by Part II of the regulations that implement the NSA. The GFE requirements apply broadly to all healthcare providers and facilities that practice within the scope of their state-issued license.

IMPORTANT PRF UPDATE! HRSA Allows Providers the Opportunity to Correct Missed Period 1 Reporting

Late Wednesday, April 6, HRSA announced that it was going to allow providers with extenuating circumstances that prevented them from preventing a completed Period 1 Report to submit a Request to Report Late Due to Extenuating Circumstances.

Advanced Practice Providers and Telemedicine Start-Up Surge

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we heard a lot about “surges” that happened all over the country regarding the virus. One of the other interesting “surges” we have followed is the “surge” in new healthcare business start-ups, particularly businesses owned by advanced practice providers, such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and certified registered nurse anesthetists (“Advanced Practice Providers” or “APPs”). One of the hottest areas in the healthcare start-up surge has been the creation of practices that are telemedicine focused.