COLUMBIANA COUNTY Commissioners study options for sales tax

Aug. 1 would be the soonest the county could collect.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- "All options are on the table," Commissioner Sean Logan said in detailing Columbiana County commissioners' avenues for getting an additional 0.5-percent sales tax for the county.
Commissioners could vote to impose the tax, place the request before voters or a combination, Logan said.
Commissioners, however, can take no action until after two public hearings. The public hearings on the proposed sales tax increase will be at 9 a.m. June 24 and 5 p.m. June 27 in the commissioners' meeting room at the county courthouse.
In May, voters defeated 0.5-percent sales tax increase that would have taken the county sales tax to 1.5 percent.
Commissioners' decision to put the measure on the ballot followed a Dec. 27, 2001, decision to impose the tax.
They rescinded the imposition in January after tax-imposition opponents threatened to mount a referendum to block tax collections.
A greater need
Logan said commissioners will try again for the tax because, "if [the need] was urgent in May it is even more urgent now. We are in the same dire circumstances; they are just bigger now."
Logan said that since the May defeat, the effects of the lost revenue on employees and companies and agencies that contract with the county are increasing.
To balance the budget, for example, Logan said, some $854,000 in contractual obligations are unmet. There have been layoffs, and many courthouse offices are closed two days a week.
If the county's financial decline continues, Logan said, continued cuts will have an even greater impact the county's services to the public.
Since the May defeat, anticipated 2002 revenues are about $12.7 million. But budget requests total about $16.7 million.
A 0.5-percent increase would bring in about $3 million annually.
Logan said if commissioners consider putting the tax increase on the ballot, it would be on the November general election.
If commissioners vote to impose the tax, Aug. 1 would be the earliest tax collections could begin, and the county would not receive any revenue from the increase until December, Logan said.
If voters approve the request in November, the revenue would not be available until April 2003, he said.