Columbiana County faces huge budgetary challenge

The 0.5 percent sales tax rejected by Columbiana County voters Tuesday had suffered the same fate on five previous occasions. Thus the question: Why do the county commissioners keep going back to the people on this issue? The answer: Because they have few other options.
The 4 million the tax would have generated means the difference between county government operating on a shoestring budget, but still providing all the services taxpayers are demanding, and a declaration of fiscal emergency by the state auditor.
But by rejecting the half-percent tax in the May primary and in the November 2005 general election, and in three other elections before that, Columbiana County residents seem to be saying that they don't believe things are as bad financially as the commissioners claim.
So now, Sean Logan, a Democrat, Jim Hoppel, a Republican, and Democrat Daniel T. Bing, who defeated incumbent Republican Gary Williams in Tuesday's election, will have to decide on a course of action. One option is for the commissioners to impose the tax, which Logan supports and Hoppel opposes. Bing's position is murky.
Just one day after the election, Democratic Party Chairman Dennis Johnson told The Vindicator that Bing does not favor enacting the tax and, instead, wants to go after grants and other money to finance county government's operation.
At the end of the week, however, Bing refused to confirm what the party chairman had said.
The commissioner-elect would only say that he is researching the county's options. It seems to us that such research should have been conducted during the campaign. After all, the county's budgetary woes were a major issue in the election.
Bing chose not to attend a Vindicator editorial board interview, which meant that the newspaper's editors and writers did not have the opportunity to explore the issue of the sales tax with him.
Thus today, residents of Columbiana County are left to wonder what will happen next year, when the budget begins dripping red ink.
Honest appraisal
Commissioner Williams, who was honest in his appraisal of the county's finances, said during the campaign that he would push to reactivate the 2 mills inside millage of property tax the county is permitted by law to collect. He was punished by the voters for his honesty.
Nonetheless, Williams continues to believe that the issue of the inside millage should be addressed, and he's hoping his colleagues on the board of commissioners, Logan and Hoppel, will join him in doing so between now and the end of the year.
Given the obvious distrust Columbiana County residents have of county government, the commissioners have a responsibility to be forthright in their assessment of the budget and their opinions of what must be done to erase the red ink.
If voters supported Bing because of his pledge not to vote to enact the 0.5 percent sales tax next year -- that certainly is party Chairman Johnson's understanding of his candidate's position -- he faces a sticky political wicket if he concludes that government cannot operate next near without additional revenue.
We can only hope that Bing does let any political aspirations he may have to come in the way of his doing what's best for Columbiana County.