McNally, Traficanti for county commissioner

All four candidates for the two Mahoning County commission seats in this year's election agree that the budget crisis is the most urgent problem confronting government, but only two of them are on the right side of the issue. The other two seem to believe that whatever ails the budget can simply be willed away. Such a Pollyanna view of things would be laughable, if it weren't so disconcerting.
Why? Because there are too many residents of Mahoning County who think that Republicans Sam Moffie and Patrick Strange are right when they argue that the general fund is bloated and that there is much fat that can be trimmed. Moffie and Strange are wrong.
Their opposition to the half-percent county sales tax on the Nov. 2 ballot is nothing more than pandering to the "taxed of" segment of the population.
Thus, we urge the election next month of Anthony Traficanti and John A. McNally IV, both Democrats who are strongly supporting the passage of the tax to be in effect for a continuing period. In the March Democratic primary, we endorsed McNally, the city of Youngstown's law director, but not Traficanti, who was on the staff of former Congressman James A. Traficant Jr.
We expressed the concern that Traficanti's election to succeed Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock, who chose not to run again, would result in county Auditor George Tablack's having too influence over two of the three commissioners. David Ludt, who is not on the ballot this year, has become a captive of the auditor.
Impressive
McNally's independent streak and his realistic view of the budget impressed us in the primary and continues to impress us today. We have no misgivings about his succeeding Commissioner Edward Reese, who also chose not to run again.
But Traficanti's victory in March demonstrated that the voters did not share our opinion of the businessman. We, therefore, looked forward to the general election and our interview with Moffie, who has spent years as a self-styled watchdog of county government.
To say that we were disappointed would be an understatement.
It wasn't just his statement that he would be against the sales tax until he saw a plan from department heads to cut spending and saw the adoption of all the recommendations contained in a state auditor's performance audit of county government that gave us pause. It was his contention that "there are millions of dollars that could be cut" from the general fund budget and his failure to provide any facts and figures to back that up that led us to the conclusion that Moffie would be detrimental to Mahoning County if he were elected commissioner.
Likewise, Strange's opposition to the sales tax and his insistence that "there's enough money to run the county" left us wondering about the world he's living in.
That said, we do remind Traficanti and McNally that the taxpayers are restless and that the defeat of a sales tax is only an election away. That means next year's board of commissioners must not push for an across-the-board implementation of insurance premium copayment but must strive to persuade officeholders to tighten their belts. Why? Because the state's projected $4 billion budget shortfall will mean a major reduction in the Local Government Fund.
In addition, the taxpayers will expect commissioners to fill important positions, such as county administrator, director of the solid waste agency and animal warden, with qualified, experienced individuals after a formal application process.
We believe that Traficanti and McNally recognize what's at stake and will do the right thing.