MAHONING VALLEY Areas to seek taxes

A special election can cost from $450 and $550 a precinct.
VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city of Warren and a number of Mahoning Valley school districts apparently subscribe to the well-worn motto: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
Voters told Warren and the school districts "no" to tax proposals at the ballot box in March. But that's not stopping the city and the school systems from taking another shot at passage on the Aug. 3 special election ballot.
Thursday was the deadline for communities and school districts to submit tax ballot issues to their county boards of elections.
It's going to cost Warren and the school districts between $450 and $550 per voting precinct to have the tax proposals on the August ballot. For Warren, the special election will cost about $29,000. There is no fee for putting tax proposals on the primary and general election ballots.
The Warren city income tax, initially passed in 2001, failed by 161 votes in March. The tax brings in about $5 million a year to the city, and is used to fund the police and fire departments.
County by county
The only Mahoning County special election issue involves the Jackson-Milton School District. The 2.8-mill tax levy lost by one vote in March.
In addition to the Warren income tax, Trumbull County voters will see tax levies for Liberty, LaBrae, Joseph Badger, Girard, Bristol, Lakeview and Weatherfield school districts.
In Columbiana County, the sole special election measure is Beaver schools' $22 million bond issue.
The measure is part of a district effort to construct a new elementary school that would cost about $22 million, and to land a nearly $30 million state grant.
The state money from the Ohio School Facilities Commission would be used to build a new high school and to remodel the high school into a middle school, Superintendent Willard Adkins explained.