Some lawmakers want to make cash king once again in Ohio.
Senate Bill 30 would require retailers to accept cash and apply to any telephone, mail, or internet-based transaction. Any violation would be considered an “unfair and deceptive act or practice” under the Consumer Sales Practices Act.
As proposed, the legislation includes some exemptions, such as airport terminal vendors, parking facilities, rental car companies, entertainment venues, and places that convert customers’ cash into prepaid cards.
“Groups traditionally on the left, like the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, have very valid concerns on this that they say, ‘If you are going to have a cashless society, where is the access for low-income, unbanked people?’” Ohio Senator Louis W. Blessing III, R-Colerain Township, told Statehouse News Bureau. “Immigrants are also in that crowd. Seniors who, frankly, have not used apps on their phones and are far more comfortable with physical cash. What about them? And why is it so unreasonable to simply say they have to be given access and people want options?”
Blessing co-sponsored the measure with Ohio Sen. Catherine D. Ingram, D-Cincinnati. Blessing sponsored a similar measure last year, but it didn’t advance.
In prepared testimony to the Ohio Senate Small Business and Economic Opportunity Committee, Blessing and Ingram said the measure is based on New Jersey legislation that has been codified. However, they said the idea isn’t a partisan one.
They said several states have introduced similar bills in recent years, and lawmakers in Rhode Island and Colorado passed Democratic-backed bills. Additionally, Indiana and Tennessee Republicans have introduced this legislation.
“Have you considered that one day your credit card could be declined as the powers that be have determined that, say, you’ve already had two fast food meals this week and that a third would be adverse to your health?” the sponsors said in prepared testimony. “Sounds scary, doesn’t it. Cash is a bulwark against such systems, unless of course it is phased out.”
According to an analysis from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, “evidence suggests that a very small number of Ohio businesses have or had cashless policies in recent years.”
The analysis found that costs could increase for the Office of the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Section to investigate potential violations should the bill be signed into law. It could also increase court costs to adjudicate any actions the office takes.
This year’s iteration has drawn support from the Catholic Conference of Ohio.
“The financialization of Ohio’s economy this century has wounded our public life in many unseen ways,” William Kuehnle, an associate director of the Catholic Conference of Ohio, said in prepared testimony to the Ohio Senate Small Business and Economic Opportunity Committee. “The reign of digital transactions penalizes frugality and elevates convenience as the principal feature of the marketplace. These are grave developments which SB 30 remedies by protecting those paying with cash under the Consumer Sales Practices Act.
“Convenience is not the only reason many of us often find ourselves without cash,” Kuehnle added. “The drive of powerful financial institutions to commodify every area of human life has pushed many into an increasingly tenuous relationship with their local economies. The indigent, the pennywise laborer, or the retiree who knows all too well the caprice of wealth exchanged or generated virtually––these and many other Ohioans conduct their transactions by cash. SB 30 protects their place in our society.”
Gahanna resident Sharon Montgomery told lawmakers she questioned the need for some of the exceptions.
“They strike me as sort of NIMBY provisions by companies large enough to afford to install cash and coin slots like grocery self-checkout lanes have and afford the staff to service those devices but apparently just don’t want to,” Montgomery said in prepared testimony. “It seems a shame to me that those companies aren’t willing to be more accommodating to more potential customers.”
