Some Ohio businesses that accept cash have been rounding up or down because of the penny shortage since production of that coin ceased last November. But there’s not a statewide standard for rounding coins. A bill under consideration by Ohio lawmakers seeks to change that.
Rep. Bill Roemer (R-Richfield) said retail merchants tell him they want a statewide standard for rounding coins to the nearest nickel due to the penny shortage. He said without it, they fear liability.
“Somebody could say ‘you rounded me down and you shouldn’t have and you owe me two cents’ and they end up in a lawsuit,” Roemer said in an interview.
House Bill 737, sponsored by Roemer and Rep. Thomas Hall (R-Madison Twp.), would work like this: If the second decimal place ends in one or two, the transaction would be rounded down to zero. If the second decimal place is three or four, it would be rounded to five. Six or seven would be rounded to five while eight or nine would be rounded to ten or zero.
The bill does not mandate businesses use rounding but if they want to, it sets a standard for them to do so. And it would not apply to credit card, electronic or online payments. But it would affect cash payments made to governments or to government tolls.
"We've been doing a lot of work on this, so I believe that we'll have a lot of support, and I don't think there will be a lot of opposition," Roemer said.
Indiana recently passed a similar bill.
