Message from the voters strikes a responsive chord

The defeat in March of the 0.5 percent sales tax renewal in Mahoning County carried a simple but ominous message from the voters: Government must change its spending ways.
Whether fair or not, there is a perception that elected officials from the commissioners on down have failed to recognize what the private sector has long known, namely, that sacrifice is the name of the game in today's workplace.
While we disagree with those who say that the only way to get government's attention is to cut off its revenue, we do acknowledge that the people of Mahoning County are in a disagreeable mood.
Thus, to have any chance of winning support for the sales tax renewal, Mahoning County's government must demonstrate that it has taken the message from the voters to heart.
Commissioners Edward Reese and David Ludt have decided to place the renewal question on the November general election ballot. Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock says that cuts in spending must be put in place immediately to show the taxpayers that belt-tightening is not just a private sector phenomenon.
Health care
The decision by the deputy sheriffs to accept sharp increases in their share of the health-care premiums is exactly the kind of concession the voters expect.
Last week, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141 voted 97-49 to ratify a three-year contract with the county. The deputies have been without a labor agreement for 15 months, and the new pact would expire at the end of 2005.
In addition to the health-insurance premium copayment, the deputies agreed to a wage freeze in the first and second years, but were able to get agreement on a wage reopener next year.
The commissioners must ratify the contract and when they do, the monthly health-care contributions from the deputies will go from $6 across the board to $28 for the single plan and $61 for the family plan.
"It's the best possible agreement we could work out at this time, given the economic situation in the county," said Glenn Kountz, FOP Lodge 141 president.
We have long called for public employees at all levels to embrace the kind of sacrifices that private sectors workers have had to make for the past several years.
We hope the agreement hammered out by the deputy sheriffs will become the standard for all other county departments and agencies.
Demands for pay raises and a refusal to bear more of the health-care premium burden will all but guarantee the defeat of the sales tax in November.
Voters are aware that the loss of the 0.5 percent means $12 million less a year in the general fund, but that does not faze them. They want government to tighten its belt. Period.