House Bill 153 (H.B. 153), the biennial state budget bill, was recently signed into law. This legislation includes a provision requiring a new permit and permit fee for certain commercially used weighing and measuring devices. Ohio Revised Code Section 1327.501 now requires a device registration fee for vehicle scales, livestock scales, railway scales, bulk rack meters, vehicle tank meters and LPG meters when they are used in assigning the final value of a commercial transaction.
Businesses requiring a permit must register with the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Division of Weights and Measures on an annual basis. A permit fee of $75 is due on July 1 each year. For 2011, device owners have until September 30, 2011to register their devices. Registrations received after September 30, 2011 will incur a $20 late fee.
For more information, as well as a link to the application for device registration, visit www.agri.ohio.gov and look under the Top News category.