COLUMBIANA CO. Ballot issue will give details on uses for tax

A commissioner wanted the details to be included to better inform voters.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Voters in the May 7 primary election will see exactly how Columbiana County commissioners intend to spend a sales tax increase, should the ballot measure be approved.
The Ohio Secretary of State's office has authorized the unusual step of including in the ballot language a list of entities that would receive revenue from the proposed increase and the percentage the entities would get, county elections Director John Payne said Thursday.
"I crossed my fingers, and they approved it," Payne said of the ballot language.
The secretary of state's office in February gave tentative approval to including the specific language.
The final approval recently granted resulted from a detailed review of the matter by the secretary of state's office.
County Commissioner Chairman Jim Hoppel had proposed putting the specifics on the ballot to give voters a clear idea of how money from the 0.5 percent increase would be spent.
By offering voters specifics, Hoppel has said he feels they may be more inclined to vote for the measure.
The ballot will state that 54 percent of the revenue will go toward housing prisoners at the county jail, 23 percent toward paying off a loan to build the county jail and the remaining 23 percent toward the county's share of operating a multicounty juvenile justice system.
Those expenses are being earmarked for the revenue because they are crucial aspects of the county budget, commissioners have said.
Until now, Payne said he's unaware of a county including those kind of specifics in ballot language for a sales tax measure.
"This is the first time I've known of anyone breaking it up into pieces," he said regarding ballot language on how tax revenue would be spent.
Traditionally, sales tax measures simply describe in a general way how the revenue will be used.
County officials say they need to increase the county's 1 percent income tax by a half-percent to meet expenses.
If adopted, the measure would raise about $3 million annually.