Officials don't plan sales tax for August ballot

Three defense lawyers left and have been replaced.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- The Columbiana County commissioners won't be putting a 0.5-percent sales tax on a special election in August.
The commissioners said last week they were looking at various options to deal with the county's shortfall, including putting the sales-tax issue on the special election ballot or the general election in November.
Sean Logan, chairman of the commissioners, said Wednesday the commissioners must have public hearings before putting the issue on the ballot. The deadline for putting issues on the August special election is 4 p.m. May 25.
The county isn't going to have the first public hearing until 6 p.m. May 31. The second is set for 10:30 a.m. June 7.
Logan said receipts from the 1-percent sales tax are up slightly but are still behind where they were a year ago.
The commissioners are searching for ways to make cuts until voters approve the 0.5-percent sales tax that would bring in about $4 million a year.
2002 all over again?
In the meantime, they are close to reliving 2002, where cuts were made and people left the county's work force.
Three attorneys recently left the Criminal Defense Company, two because of cuts from the commissioners. The nonprofit corporation CDC functions as the county's public defender's office.
The CDC has been cut about 5.5 percent so far this year but it may face deeper cuts.
Frederic E. Naragon, the head of CDC, said three other lawyers replaced those who left. Naragon said CDC attorneys are independent contractors.
The only other legal options for representing criminal defendants are county-appointed lawyers or a public defender's office.
Logan said that when appropriations were cut in county offices in 2002, the county's judges eventually filed a lawsuit to get adequate funding for legal operations.
The commissioners enacted the tax, a referendum failed to repeal it, and the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit by the county judges on a technicality, Logan said.
wilkinson@vindy.com