Economic stability crucial for Columbiana County

If you live in one of the 5,000 homes in Columbiana County that received or will be receiving a fact sheet on county government's finances, you know or will know before the Nov. 2 election why commissioners Sean Logan, Jim Hoppel and Gary Williams decided to place a 1 percent continuous sales tax on the ballot.
But if you are unfortunate enough to miss the pitch being made by a grass-roots campaign called "Cents Make Sense," here's a statement on the fact sheet that should at least to get you to think: "While some might argue that the county could simply cut its expenditures by 43 percent and do without the sales tax, that isn't possible for many expenditures are mandated by state and federal law."
The word mandated is important because as just about every local officeholder knows, when the federal and state governments say jump the response is, "how high?" No local government has refused to provide a mandated service and emerged a winner in Columbus or Washington. That's just the nature of the political beast.
Hence the need for local taxes. To those who would argue that if the feds or the folks in Columbus want a service provided at the local level they should pay for it, we say that's nothing more than wishful thinking.
It would be one thing if Washington or Columbus backed up their mandates with dollars, but that dream died long ago. The situation today is simply this: Federal dollars are difficult to come by, and whatever allocations are made go to the state first. State government, in turn, is supposed to provide local governments with money to meet the mandates. But with Ohio barely keeping its head above financial water, there has been and will continue to be a reduction in the amount of money available.
Ohio's deficit
For example, there were cuts in the Local Government Fund allocation in the current biennium and there will be more cuts in the next biennium. Ohio is facing a $4 billion to $6 billion general fund shortfall, which means local governments will suffer.
Aware of the uncertainties ahead, commissioners Logan, Hoppel and Williams made a decision that was politically risky -- Logan and Hoppel are seeking re-election next month -- but showed true leadership.
Even though the two county sales taxes -- 1 percent and 0.5 percent -- don't expire until next year, the commissioners decided that they would ask the voters to embrace the goal of economic stability for the county by approving the 1 percent tax for a continuous period.
As things now stand, because the two taxes are expiring next year, the possibility of one or both being defeated looms large. Indeed, having a tax on the books for only five years at a time is asking for trouble. Why? Because too many people use this important revenue source as a political football.
If the 1 percent continuous tax is approved, Columbiana County government would have at least $7.6 million a year -- 43 percent of the county's general fund -- that it could count on.
Remember, it was in 2000 when the Columbiana County commissioners had to grapple with a general fund deficit of at least $2 million because the rate of spending was surpassing revenue. And while there was a 1 percent sales tax issue on the ballot, Ohio's auditor warned that even with the levy's passage, the county would still be put under fiscal watch. The county's financial condition was precarious, to put it mildly.
Voters did approve the tax, but as the auditor had predicted, the financial condition of the county continued to deteriorate.
That prompted Logan and then Commissioner David Cranmer to impose a 0.5 percent sales. The vote played a major role in Cranmer's losing his re-election bid.
But the commissioners did not have any choice then -- just as they have no choice now but to appeal to the voters of Columbiana County to help them stabilize government's finances by approving the 1 percent continuous tax.