VALLEY CONVENTION BUREAUS Merger proposal causes a stir

Directors from both sides are skeptical about using a room tax to fund the airport.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- Trumbull County commissioners reacted with skepticism to a plan from Mahoning County to merge the two counties' convention and visitors bureaus, then cut the combined funding by about one-third.
The money saved -- about $600,000 a year, between the two counties -- could support the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, Mahoning County Commissioner Vickie Allen Sherlock says.
Heads of the two convention and visitors bureaus are more than skeptical about the idea: They hate it.
"I felt friction coming in here to merging the two boards," Trumbull County Commissioner Joseph Angelo Jr. said at a joint meeting between county commissioners and officials at the two convention boards. "I feel friction right now, and I don't think it is going to work."
In any case, commissioners from both counties say they will move ahead quickly to establish room tax as a source of funding for the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
Last month, the state Legislature passed a law permitting a 2 percent room tax increase to fund the airport.
Now, all of the room tax imposed by the counties -- 3 percent in Mahoning, 2.5 percent in Trumbull -- goes to support their respective bureaus.
But at a public meeting last week, Mahoning County hotel owners complained bitterly at the prospect of the room tax's being increased for the airport.
From that meeting came Sherlock's plan to keep the total amount of Mahoning County room tax the same, but to take the 2 percent for the airport from the convention and visitor's bureau share.
Trumbull County could set up its tax the same way, and a sleeker combined convention bureaus would operate with less money, she said.
"We could weed out some of the redundancies, duplication of services and operate less expensively," she said.
At the meeting Thursday, Angelo said he did not know if a 2 percent room tax -- about $300,000 per county, per year -- was the appropriate level of support for the airport. He said he would want to discuss finances with airport officials and talk to every member of the convention board.
"For me to make a decision, I would have to see what it [a merged convention bureau] would look like," said Trumbull County Commissioner Michael O'Brien.
Angelo and Commissioner James G. Tsagaris were also doubtful that a room tax increase would really discourage people from visiting local hotels.
"Who asks what the tax is?" Tsagaris said.
He also said the merger of convention bureaus would take time, and should be addressed separately from airport funding.
Talk of merger is a sore subject for Tom Lyden, executive director of the Youngstown/Mahoning CVB, and Richard Alberini, chairman of the Trumbull County CVB.
They say they don't want to merge, and that they couldn't do their jobs on 1 percent room tax -- about $150,000 per year.
"We can't run on that," Lyden said. "We run a tight ship."
siff@vindy.com