MAHONING COUNTY Panel to push for passage of sales tax

The committee is seeking volunteers and donations.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Committee For Our Future has been given an urgent and difficult task: to persuade Mahoning County residents to pass the five-year, half-percent sales tax May 3.
Commissioners asked Andrew Hamady of Poland to help set up the committee. A meeting was held earlier this week, attended by 48 people from the county, said Hamady, long active in local politics and once a sales tax opponent.
From that meeting, two co-chairmen were selected to coordinate the committee's efforts, Hamady said. They are George Beelen, formerly of Youngstown State University's history department and a former Austintown Township trustee, and Sam Matheny of Lake Milton, who helped Anthony Traficanti in Traficanti's campaign for commissioner.
Representing the commissioners on the committee are Walter M. Duzzny, director of the county's Emergency Management Agency, and Suzanne Barbati, the county's special projects coordinator.
Getting the word out
At the commissioners' weekly meeting Thursday, Beelen said he would be out spreading the simple message: Mahoning County needs the sales tax revenue.
"We have no consistent revenue flow," Beelen said. "I'll do what I can to communicate to people the sales tax is necessary and imperative for the county's future."
Matheny said the committee faces a major challenge and it will need the help of those who supported the tax in the past to come out again. The committee's next meeting is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Ironworkers Local 207 hall, 698 Bev Road, Boardman.
Joe Gorman of Austintown will serve as committee treasurer.
The sales tax will be the lone issue on the countywide primary election ballot. Duzzny passed out a form that explained how people can get involved.
Supporters first fill out the form with their name, home address, e-mail address and phone number. Those signing up can check a box to serve on the committee and they will be asked to do one or more of the following:
UCollect locations for yard signs. The committee has 500 yard signs to distribute.
URaise money for the promotional campaign. The committee says it needs $65,000 to do the job. There is a $100 limit on cash contributions; no limit on contributions by check. Checks should be made out to Committee For Our Future and mailed to Gorman at 2256 Woodridge Court, Youngstown 44515.
UPass out material at various public events between April 18 and May 3. The committee will provide all the materials.
Tax expired
Voters twice defeated renewal of the county's half-percent sales tax last year. As a result, the tax expired Dec. 31, and the county lost between $12 million and $14 million it generated.
The sales tax made up about one-third of the county's total revenue, so incoming Commissioners Traficanti and John McNally IV, along with incumbent David Ludt, had to make do without that money when figuring out 2005 budget appropriations.
They pared $53.9 million in budget requests to $39.9 million and doled out every cent to general fund departments. Unless more money comes in this year to increase the county's certificate of spending, county coffers are empty.