COLUMBIANA COUNTY Cranmer abandons plan to pursue tax repeal

The defeated commissioner accused his opponent of offering to swap his candidacy for more funding for a county department.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County officials are expressing hope that county government can return its attention to fiscal recovery after Commissioner Dave Cranmer abandoned his threat to repeal an imposed sales tax increase.
"We need to move on," commissioner-elect Gary Williams said after Cranmer scrapped his repeal effort at Wednesday's commissioner meeting.
Cranmer ripped up the resolution without a motion for its passage having been made by himself or the other two commissioners, Jim Hoppel and Sean Logan.
Wouldn't vote for it
Hoppel said he wouldn't have voted to repeal the 0.5 percent sales tax increase because it's already in place and the $3 million in revenue it will generate is needed.
Logan likewise said he didn't support the measure.
"It's put to bed now," Hoppel said of the repeal. "There's no use in making more of a fiasco of it than has already been made," he added.
Cranmer proposed repealing the tax Nov. 5, immediately after learning he had lost his bid for a second term to Williams, the county recorder.
Cranmer attributed his defeat to his joining with Logan in June to impose the increase.
During his campaign, Williams said the increase was needed to rescue the county from its fiscal crisis, but he criticized Cranmer and Logan for imposing it, saying tax increases should be decided by a popular vote.
That view is shared by Hoppel, who voted against imposition.
On election night, Cranmer suggested he would give Williams a chance to have the people vote on an increase by repealing the 0.5 percent boost.
His response
Williams responded by saying he opposed repealing the increase because it already was in place.
On Wednesday, Cranmer defended his role in imposing the tax and denied his repeal proposal was sour-grapes politics as Williams has contended.
After the meeting, Cranmer said without specifically elaborating that he proposed the repeal "to bring out the truth that the imposition was the right thing to do."
During the meeting, Cranmer accused Williams of visiting his office in late June or early July and stating that if Cranmer would provide more funding to the recorder's office, Williams wouldn't run against him.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Williams said later.
Williams suggested Cranmer's credibility has suffered as a result of the tax repeal proposal.
Cranmer disagreed. "I've told the people the truth all along," he said.
Hoppel said it's up to county residents to decide the issue's impact on Cranmer's credibility.
"In the end, he did the right thing in not following through with the resolution [to repeal]," Hoppel said.