Visiting judge to hear opposition to emergency tax collections

WARREN -- A visiting judge in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court will hear a motion to prevent emergency tax collections.
Judge Thomas Patrick Curran of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court will preside over the 10:30 a.m. May 4 hearing here.
Thaddeus Price of Howland seeks the temporary restraining order. He hopes to stop county commissioners from collecting an emergency tax for criminal justice services.
He also has launched two petition drives against the two new quarter-percent county sales taxes.
Commissioners imposed two taxes this month. One is an emergency measure for criminal justice services such as the sheriff, prosecutor and coroner; the second is a nonemergency measure for general fund operations such as the auditor, treasurer and recorder.
The county already collects a half-percent sales tax.
Judge Peter Kontos removed himself from the case because the courts stand to benefit from the emergency tax.
Specifically, Price's court action names as defendants the commissioners, board of elections, county auditor and state tax commissioner. Price contends the county commissioners' emergency resolution for a criminal justice services tax is invalid.
Judge Curran has presided over other notable Trumbull County cases, including Danny Lee Hill's death penalty appeal and the traffic fatality civil liability suit against Niles and its police chief.