AUSTINTOWN Trustees begin process for new levy

The proposed levy would generate an estimated $1.4 million a year.
AUSTINTOWN -- Trustees have taken the first step toward placing a new 2.5-mill levy on the November ballot.
They passed a resolution Monday asking Mahoning County Auditor George Tablack to certify the township's total current tax valuation and the amount of revenue that would be generated by a 2.5-mill levy.
Township Administrator Michael Dockry estimated that the proposed levy would generate about $1.4 million in annual revenue for the township and cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $78 a year.
The proposed levy, which trustees may vote to place on the ballot next month, would be a continuing levy, meaning it would have no stated expiration date.
The levy would be used for the police department or for both the police and fire departments, Trustee Bo Pritchard has said. Without budget cuts, the township is projected to have a $1.2 million deficit at the end of the year. Several township employees have been laid off to save money.
What clerk said
The public should not conclude that recent new development, including the opening of new commercial establishments, will increase revenues for the township and its public schools, said township Clerk Michael Kurish.
Such new development causes the same total property tax yield to be spread across a larger tax base, while the new establishments put more demand on township police and fire services, he explained.
Trustees also rescinded the township's strip club (adult cabaret) registration resolution, thereby removing the matter from the November ballot. A federal appellate court recently ruled portions of the state law authorizing such resolutions unconstitutional.
"We are going to address what comes of that once we have the prosecutor's opinion as to what we can and cannot put and keep in our cabaret law," Pritchard said Monday.
Trustees also declared as public nuisances three lots on 42nd Street and four lots on Starwick Court, all with 3-foot-high grass, and a lot on South Raccoon Road with 1-foot-high grass. They also declared as a nuisance a Kirk Road lot with concrete blocks and other debris from a recent demolition.
Property owners have 10 days to correct the problems, or the township will arrange to do so and send them the bill.