COLUMBIANA COUNTY Sales tax issue to go before voters in fall

The commissioners agree the sales tax is needed.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- The Columbiana County commissioners have agreed to place a 0.5 percent sales tax on the November ballot.
On Wednesday, Commissioner Chairman Sean Logan initially proposed the same tax be enacted, "to avoid a fiscal crisis." Under his proposal, the tax would have gone into effect for five years starting Oct. 1.
Logan started to pronounce the motion dead, but Commissioner Gary Williams seconded it so the commissioners could discuss the issue.
The commissioners agreed that the county needs the $4 million a year the tax generates, but politely disagreed on how to obtain it.
Williams pointed out that county residents can and have gathered voters' signatures to put the issue on the ballot to block its enactment.
"I feel people have a right to vote on issues," Williams said.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel pointed out that the tax was defeated in November and by a smaller margin in May.
Hoppel said voters "do not like a tax to be imposed against them."
The county does collect a 1 percent tax, which along with other funds, will give the county about a $14 million budget this year.
Financial burdens increasing
Logan warned that the county is trying to get by this year in part by not paying about a $1 million bill to the Multi-County Juvenile Attention System for mandated services to troubled youths. Borrowing money and cutting programs, Logan said, "will cost us more down the road."
Hoppel said the county has worked its way out of debt before.
Williams and Hoppel voted against Logan's proposal. The commissioners then voted unanimously to place the issue before voters.
"The money is needed," Hoppel said, who added that he hoped voters would act responsibly and approve the tax.
"We can make a case for what it's for," Williams said.
Logan said, "We are united in this resolution. It is absolutely needed."
Health-care policy
The commissioners and other county officials have been discussing implementing a policy starting Jan. 1 that would require county workers to pay a part of their health insurance costs.
Later in the meeting, the commissioners rejected a fact finder's report to the State Employment Relations Board regarding the four job positions that are directly under the commissioners. One of the positions is vacant.
The report, the commissioners said, supported a raise and full health insurance
"A co-pay is a sign of the times," Hoppel said.
The commissioners said their workers had not had a raise for two years because of the county's tight budget.
wilkinson@vindy.com