Representative Pazuli: House Bill 109 would centralize lodging-tax collection for home-sharing platforms and protect local safety rules

Representative Pazuli presented sponsored testimony on House Bill 109, saying the bill would require short-term rental platforms to collect and remit local lodging taxes, restore parity between home-sharing units and hotels, and provide local governments revenue they currently cannot collect. Pazuli said rural districts in her region lack hotel capacity and that home-sharing units "outnumber hotel beds" there. She told the committee short-term rentals make up "about 6% of Ohio's housing stock — about 31,700 out of more than 5,000,000 housing units," a statistic she used to argue the measure is unlikely to worsen statewide housing affordability.

Pazuli said the bill would prohibit blanket bans while still allowing local governments to enforce safety, nuisance, parking, tax and other local regulations. She acknowledged that some municipalities have adopted bans or effective bans and said she did not want to single out particular cities in committee testimony. Representative Pazuli also said the bill would permit the Ohio Real Estate Commission to issue real-estate licenses electronically (a smaller portion of the bill) and that she expected substitutes or amendments to iron out centralized-collection mechanics, such as how a lottery system or licensing scheme might operate.

Committee members asked clarifying questions on whether "lodging tax" is the same as "hotel tax" (members were told terminology is equivalent), on how tax revenue is shared regionally, whether time limits on stays would be part of the bill, and on enforcement resources for municipalities. Representative Pazuli said distributions vary by region, that details remain under negotiation and that licensing or registration fees could help municipalities enforce local rules. No vote or committee action on House Bill 109 occurred at this hearing.