City leaders in the Mahoning Valley are fighting against proposed legislation in the Ohio Senate that would eliminate their ability to collect income taxes from people working remotely, outside of the communities where their jobs are located.

Warren Mayor Doug Franklin recently asked city council to approve a resolution opposing the legislation, Senate Bill 352 sponsored by Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Akron, that, if passed, could significantly reduce the amount of income taxes being collected by the city.

The Ohio legislature in March approved HB 197, also known as the coronavirus relief bill, which, in part, has allowed communities in which a company is located to continue to collect income taxes from workers that may be working remotely from homes in different communities.

Roegner’s bill would return the state to its pre-pandemic period where taxes are collected in the communities where the work is being done, not in the communities in which the company may be headquartered, but the worker is not located.

“The workers should not be paying taxes in communities where they aren’t working, Roegner said. “The taxes paid should be going to the communities that are providing services to the workers.”

HB 197 was approved to help communities and businesses to survive when much of the state shut down due to the pandemic.

Read more in Sunday’s Vindicator.