TRUMBULL COUNTY Officials delay vote on visitors bureau

A proposal would cut the portion of a hotel-room tax that funded the bureau.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County Commissioners have delayed deciding whether to quit funding the county convention and visitors bureau until after next week's primary election.
At the regular board meeting Wednesday, county Commissioner James Tsagaris proposed reducing the county tax on hotel rooms from 4 percent to 2 percent, eliminating the portion of the tax that had funded the convention bureau.
According to Tsagaris' motion, proceeds from the remaining tax would be used only to fund the Western Reserve Port Authority, which runs the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and is involved in several economic development projects.
The motion died when, after a five-minute recess, neither of the other commissioners decided to lend support.
"I would like to think about this decision for a week," said Commissioner Dan Polivka, who is running to keep his seat.
He said he thinks commissioners should actually meet with the convention board before deciding to yank their funding.
Commissioner Joseph Angelo declined to discuss his vote. He retreated into his office during the five-minute recess after Tsagaris made the motion but before the vote was held.
Critical of board
Tsagaris has been a frequent critic of the convention board since he says he discovered the bureau had accumulated a cash surplus of about $200,000.
Tsagaris said he wanted to end tax support for the bureau because its bank account shows it doesn't need it.
"They have the money right now," he said.
The bureau's savings have shrunk to about $167,000 since November, when commissioners stopped passing along the room-tax money, the bureau's only source of funding.
Until last year, Ohio law permitted room-tax money to be used only to support the convention bureau. However, a change in law supported by commissioners expanded possible uses of the money to include the port authority.
As well, the county is holding about $117,000 in room-tax money that had been earmarked for the convention bureau but never passed along, said first assistant prosecutor James Misocky.
Commissioners did not approve a 2004 budget for the bureau, Misocky said. The bureau was allocated $230,000 in 2003.