Sales tax options weighed

Two proposed issues won't help the county budget in 2006.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County commissioners are considering two plans to put a 0.5 percent sales tax before voters next year.
More than 62 percent of county voters defeated a 0.5 percent sales tax last week.
The bad news is that approval of either tax won't bring in much money in 2006.
The county's finances may take another hit. Commissioner Sean Logan said Wednesday that car sales account for about 20 percent of the sales tax collections. State figures show that current car sales are below normal, which means the county may see less revenue from its 1 percent sales tax.
Commissioner Gary Williams said, "We're in trouble."
Special election
Commissioners said they may place the issue on a special election in February. The commissioners would have to approve the issue by next Wednesday in order to place it before voters.
Logan said that it would cost the county $500 a precinct, or $51,500, to have the special election.
If the commissioners decide to have a special election, state law will require them to earmark some of the revenue.
Logan said the county could earmark funds to help pay for the new jail and jail operations, and to pay for the county's share of operating the Multi-County Juvenile Attention System. Using the sales tax revenue for those costs would free the general fund revenue that pays for the jail and juvenile system and other county operations.
If the commissioners decide to save the cost of the election, they can place the 0.5-percent tax on the May primary ballot with no strings attached. They have scheduled public hearings at 5 p.m. Dec. 7 and 10:30 a.m. Dec. 14 to get public comments under the legal steps to the May ballot.
Delays
If a 0.5-percent sales tax is approved, it will take time for the vote to be certified. The state begins to collect a sales tax at the start of a fiscal quarter, and then takes more time to send it to the county.
Commissioner Chairman Jim Hoppel estimated the county would only receive a small amount of revenue if the tax was approved in February, and nothing in 2006 if the tax was approved in May.
Williams and Hoppel don't want to enact the tax and Logan would do so only to avoid a financial crisis. Hoppel said after the most recent defeat that the county will have to lay off workers.
The lack of consistent sales tax funding has created problems for the county for years. Williams said he was doing research recently and noticed the struggle to enact the tax was going on 17 years ago.
"It's amazing how Columbiana County's problems don't change," Williams said.
wilkinson@vindy.com