By John McCarthy
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - A plan the House added to the state budget would give the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency a deadline for issuing permits to businesses that pollute.

Should the EPA miss the target date, the permit would automatically be granted. The agency and environmentalists say the plan is too restrictive.

Rep. Keith Faber's amendment would give the EPA 120 days from the day it receives the application to issue or deny the permit, or the applicant would automatically get it. However, the agency can get an automatic 45-day extension and ask the applicant for another 45 days.

While Faber's proposal is being studied in the Senate, which plans to pass its version of the $48.5 billion spending plan by early June, the EPA is developing rule changes recommended by a committee led by the industries it regulates.

Gov. Bob Taft vetoed a provision similar to Faber's in the two-year budget he signed in 2001, saying the agency should not be forced to rush complex permit applications.

Faber said the time limit is necessary to attract new business to Ohio and keep businesses that want to expand from moving elsewhere. He said one reason the glassmaking Corning Inc. decided to put new 1,000 jobs in Indiana rather than at its Greenville plant was the length of time it would take to get its permit to expand.

"If we ever hope in Ohio to be competitive, we need to have a responsive permit process," said Faber, a Celina Republican whose district consists of two counties and part of a third that border Indiana.

Taft said he had not studied Faber's proposal but was concerned about placing constraints on the EPA.

Faber said he would support a move to exempt perhaps 10 percent of permit applications from the time limit if the agency thinks they are too complex. EPA spokeswoman Heidi Greismer said Director Christopher Jones would have to see that proposal before deciding whether to support it.

" It's a bad idea because some permit applications for large-scale projects can run thousands of pages, said Jack Shaner, lobbyist for the Ohio Environmental Council, a nonprofit advocacy group. "The agency needs time to review what effectively can be a lifetime license to operate," Shaner said.

The group also has concerns about the EPA's review of how it issues permits and the committee it assembled to study the process. In addition to EPA staff, the Permit Processing Efficiency Committee included representatives of the Ohio Manufacturers' Association, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

A recent report by the advocacy group Ohio Citizen Action found that committee members or their political action committees had donated more than $2.9 million to the campaigns of legislative and statewide candidates and political parties from 1999-2002.

Among the committee's recommendation is to allow permits for smaller businesses and industries to be issued by rule, without the usual 30-day public comment period.