City wants JEDD pacts in place by August

YOUNGSTOWN —A Youngstown official wants contracts with Austintown and Boardman to allow the city to implement an economic development plan, including the imposition of income taxes on those working in the townships, by August.

“It’s a reachable goal,” Sarah Lown, the city’s development incentive director, said today after a city council meeting to discuss the plan.

Austintown Trustee David Ditzler, who also attended the meeting, said Lown’s goal is going to be “extremely difficult” to achieve.

City council and administrators met publicly for the first time today to discuss the proposal. The proposal calls for the city to charge a 2-percent income tax on those who work in the portions of Boardman and Austintown that receive Youngstown water.

The townships could place its own 0.25-percent income tax on those same people.

In exchange, the city would reduce its income tax from 2.75 percent to 2.25 percent, and Youngstown would reduce the surcharge on its water customers in the two townships from 40 percent to 20 percent.

Ditzler said he and others in Austintown would embrace a proposal to charge an income tax on vacant land that could be developed through the assistance of Youngstown.

But Ditzler said he doesn’t know one township resident who supports taxing workers at businesses.

For the complete story, read Thursday’s Vindicator or Vindy.com