Renewal of 0.5% sales tax in Mahoning is an easy call

It's not an exaggeration to suggest that the defeat of the 0.5 percent sales tax in Mahoning County will cause an economic implosion of monumental proportions. Hundreds of county government employees will have to be laid off, and while that might appeal to the "I'm taxed off" segment of the population, the reality of a $12 million loss in yearly revenue will hit home for many residents.
Services will have to be cut, and it will be a challenge to meet federal and state mandates. Because law enforcement and criminal justice account for about 60 percent of the county's $53 million general fund budget, the ongoing war on crime will suffer a setback.
The remaining 40 percent of the budget is used to fund the board of elections, veterans services, human services and the offices of auditor, recorder and treasurer.
At this point, it is important for voters in next Tuesday's primary election to remember that the 0.5 percent sales tax on the ballot will have the word renewal in the language. That's because it has been on the books for five years and is expiring on Dec. 31.
Why not wait until November to place the renewal question before the voters?
The answer lies in the economic assessment of the county by Auditor George Tablack. He told commissioners Edward Reese, Vicki Allen Sherlock and David Ludt that waiting until November would cost the treasury about $3 million because of a change in state law that would prevent the county from collecting tax revenue for the first three months of the year.
Yes, the situation is that drastic.
Economic development
If it weren't, the commissioners and Tablack would certainly not have embraced the politically risky stance of eliminating the revenue-sharing aspect of the tax. In 1999, commissioners determined that the tax was doomed to fail unless townships and municipalities in Mahoning County were given an incentive to sell the issue to their residents. Thus was born the idea to set aside a portion of the $12 million each year for distribution to communities in dire need of money for economic development projects.
The revenue-sharing pledge -- it was incorporated in the resolution passed by the commissioners to place the 0.5 percent sales tax question on the 1999 ballot -- was credited with tipping the scales in favor of passage.
This year, however, with Mahoning County on shaky financial ground -- the general fund has been losing money for several years -- Reese, Sherlock and Ludt were forced to take a position that may not sit well with voters in the rural areas. But they had no choice.
Tablack has suggested that when the county recovers financially, commissioners can consider reviving the revenue-sharing program. In the remaining days of the campaign, Reese, Sherlock and Ludt would do well to publicly make such a commitment.
Given the economic uncertainties on the national and state levels, the renewal of the half-percent sales tax is a civic responsibility. Now is not the time to throw county government into a fiscal tailspin.