Commissioners: We need sales tax

Even with sales tax revenue, the county will still face a $2 million deficit in 2007.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LISBON -- Columbiana County commissioners gave the word to a handful of county residents that a 0.5-percent county sales tax is needed desperately.
About a dozen people showed up Wednesday evening for the first of two public hearings on the proposed tax, which failed at the polls in November.
Commissioner Sean Logan said that even if commissioners put the tax on the ballot in November and it were approved, the tax collection wouldn't begin until Jan. 1, 2007. Because the state actually collects the tax, the money wouldn't get to the county until July.
Because of that delay, the county would still have about a $2 million deficit in 2007, he said.
Logan said sales-tax revenue would help fund the adult and juvenile detention programs, but there would still be a shortfall.
About half of the people at Wednesday's night's public meeting showed up to support Ohio State University Extension programs, and county 4-H and junior fair in particular. They suggested commissioners should put more money into extension rather than into the juvenile detention facility, because 4-H and other youth programs help keep the county's young people out of detention centers.
Commissioners said that even though state law doesn't require the county to fund the OSU Extension, the county put $15,000 into the program for 2006.
Some voters who said they support 4-H said they also favor the sales tax over property taxes because higher property taxes hurt farmers already struggling because of high fuel costs.
Logan noted the sales tax was defeated in May in townships that are mostly agrarian. Knox Township, for example, defeated the tax by nearly 200 votes, he said.
Logan said if voters continue to defeat the sales tax, the county could go into fiscal emergency. State officials would then monitor the county's finances and require plans to eliminate the deficit. He said the state would not provide any financial assistance.
He said the cash shortfalls would also create budget uncertainty. If the county can't pay its share of the cost of the Multi-County Juvenile Attention System expenses, commissioners may have to close the Louis-Tobin Attention Center, a juvenile detention facility in Center Township.
If that were to happen, the cost to detain juveniles would become an unknown expense. Commissioners speculate the cost could at least double.
Don Thernes, superintendent of the juvenile facility, said the county must pay nearly $1 million in 2007 to continue fully operating the facility, which also serves Carroll, Holmes, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties.
tullis@vindy.com