MAHONING COUNTY Tax issue on hold for new board

The imposition of a sales tax will be left up to the new board.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Commissioner David Ludt made the motion to impose a one-year, half-percent sales tax.
He waited for a second to his motion. None came.
There was silence from outgoing Commissioners Edward J. Reese and Vicki Allen Sherlock.
Reese, commission chairman, hearing no second to Ludt's motion, then banged his gavel and ended the suspense of whether the sales tax would be imposed.
It would not.
The commissioners' hearing room was packed again Thursday as county employees, citizens and mayors waited to see and hear the decision.
Before their vote, commissioners offered their positions on the sales tax, which has been voted down four times and approved four times since it was first put on in 1981.
Changing his mind
Ludt, once a staunch opponent of the tax, said his reason for changing his mind was simple: "We need the money."
Reese said he would offer this advice to incoming commissioners John McNally IV and Anthony Traficanti, who take office Monday.
"A 1 percent continuous sales tax is the way to go," he said, adding that the commissioners can't cut spending any thinner and leaner than they already have and continue to provide the necessary county services.
"If we [the county] were a business, we would be out of business," Reese said, adding the commissioners' staff and other departments have taken multitasking to a new level to help make county government more efficient.
"I keep hearing people tell me that no means no, but when does yes mean yes," he said, reminding the audience that voters did approve the sales tax four times.
Sherlock said the sales tax had become a "political football" and she was tired of the game playing. She also advocated that there needs to be wholesale changes in county government.
What's next
Because there was no vote on the tax, the new board can continue public hearings if it chooses before making a decision to impose it sometime next year.
The sales tax voters turned down in March and November, which brought in between $13 million and $14 million a year, officially ends today.
There is a lag between the time the county collects the revenue, so sales tax revenue will continue coming in through April 2005.
The county's sales tax rate drops from 7 percent to 61/2 percent Saturday.
Joseph Caruso, assistant county administrator, said the county expects about a $4 million carryover into next year once the books are closed out on 2004. That means the county will have slightly more than $38 million to spend in 2005.
Budget requests now total close to $57 million, so the new board will have to pare $19 million from those requests.
Caruso said he plans to meet with Ludt, McNally and Traficanti next week, and budget hearings should be scheduled around the third week in January.
Commissioners passed a three-month budget of $12 million to get general fund departments up and running for the first quarter of 2005. The county has until April 1 to pass a full-year appropriation.