Issues risky for elected officials

Warren Mayor Michael O’Brien is confident that the voters of his city will approve the continuation of a 0.5 percent income tax on Tuesday, but he isn’t taking any chances. In a television commercial touting the services residents receive from the money generated by the tax, O’Brien concludes his pitch with a “God bless you.”

Not to read too much into it, but the mayor’s invocation of the Almighty does suggest that he is at least hoping for divine intervention. After all, even though the 0.5 percent tax has been in effect for three years, there is still the possibility of voter revolt. Why? Because the issue that will appear on the general election ballot will have the word additional — to reflect the fact that it would be on the books permanently if approved.

In 2004, voters rejected the half-percent tax, but then in a special election that August passed it on a temporary basis. It expires at the end of this year.

But it isn’t just the change from temporary to permanent that must give Mayor O’Brien a twinge of uncertainty. Taxpayer discontent is evident throughout the Mahoning Valley, what with the comparison of private and public sector jobs. While companies have been slashing positions and demanding concessions from those who remain, governments at all levels have yet to face that reality.

While wage freezes are common in the private sector, pay raises for public employees are the rule rather than the exception.

Mayor O’Brien, who has been in politics a long time, knows full well that voters can be fickle when it comes to paying taxes. Hence, his prayer for the residents of the city.

Boardman

That’s a strategy Boardman Township officials might want to adopt as they make a last-minute pitch for a 4.1-mill additional levy for operating expenses.

While trustees Elaine Mancini, Cathy Miller and Robyn Gallitto and others in township government have warned of dire consequences if the levy is rejected, the response on The Vindicator’s Web site, Vindy.com, to a story last Sunday about township government’s spending on personnel is revealing.

The story by Reporter Denise Dick focused on the 2006 payroll and showed that employees are well paid compared with other communities. Dick’s story quoted township Administrator Jason Loree and Fiscal Officer William Leicht as saying the salaries serve to attract well qualified applicants for jobs in government.

However, a reading of the list of employees and their wages — it does not include the value of the benefit package, estimated at about 40 percent of the wage — does make the challenge of selling a tax increase all the more difficult.

Tuesday’s vote will come down to a matter of credibility. If residents believe that the trustees and other officials have been good stewards of their tax dollars, they will approve the 4.1 mills. But if they conclude that not enough has been done to trim the budget, including getting concessions, such as wage freezes or givebacks, from employees, they will vote no.

A similar challenge confronts the Youngstown School District, which is in state-mandated fiscal emergency and is facing a $15 million deficit this year. The board of education, with the endorsement of the state fiscal oversight commission, is seeking a 9.5-mill levy on Tuesday.

Even if it is approved, the district would still have to make cuts in spending. More than $17 million has already been slashed from the budget.

But even with the oversight commission urging passage, the outcome is still uncertain. That’s because many residents wonder if money is the answer to what ails the school system academically.

The district has been put under academic watch by the state because of its poor proficiency test scores.

Challenges

District officials have argued, with some credibility, that urban school students face challenges in their daily lives that their suburban counterparts could not imagine.

Against the backdrop of the discontent among taxpayers in just about every community in the Mahoning Valley, the issues on Tuesday’s ballot could be viewed as referenda on the keepers of the public purse.