COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Some people think they can get away with skimming a little off the top and no one will notice.

Some of those people work for local government subdivisions: villages; towns; cities; counties; and school districts to name a few.

Since 2011 the Ohio State Auditor Dave Yost and his investigators have found at least 35 cases of credit card misuse by a local government subdivision.

In some cases the amounts are relatively small, in others, they are too large to be a simple mistake.

Kind of like what happened in the Village of Mount Sterling, where the village fiscal officer used the government credit card to make $724,239 in purchases over a 4 year period.

He put down payments on cars and trucks, bought auto parts, television sets, and all manner of items for personal use.

Yost says the administrator, even the village itself, is a poster child for the dangers of credit and debit card misuse.

As such, he worked with State Representatives Dave Greenspan and Kirk Schuring to craft legislation that would put measures in place to limit these kinds of incidents and protect taxpayer dollars.

The bill received its number Wednesday and will be known as House Bill 312.

Basically, it requires government subdivisions to choose between two options; the custody and control model, or the compliance officer model.

The custody and control model allows treasurers who physically control the plastic credit or debit card to continue to operate as they have been, while requiring them to have a credit card policy.

An estimated 10 percent of the 500+ government subdivisions in Ohio do not have a policy.

It also requires a system to check out the credit cards, and upon return of the card an itemized receipt must accompany it.

This model is designed for smaller subdivisions which fewer cards to keep track of.

The compliance officer model can be applied to larger subdivisions or ones where the Treasurer does not have control of the physical cards.

In this model, they are required to develop a policy to include; the procedure for use of the card; who can use it; how often the cards are reissued; creation of credit limits on each card; and addressing what qualifies as an allowable expense.

The compliance officer themselves will have to conduct quarterly reviews to ensure the policy is being followed.

There is no criminal penalty currently attached to the legislation as it has been introduced.

Yost and Greenspan agree that there are enough criminal penalties tied to the misuse of taxpayer dollars that adding even more isn’t appropriate, especially if the legislation is not followed correctly by mistake.

Still, if the legislation passes into law and it is violated, they violator would end up with an embarrassing reprimand from the State Auditor.

Finally, the legislation recommends eliminating debit cards from use by local government subdivisions.

Debit cards withdraw money immediately from accounts, and it is terribly difficult, if not impossible, to track what that money is then used on.

Greenspan, in his first year as a state lawmaker, says the bill is commonsense legislation that he expects will get bipartisan support.