Trumbull officials plan hearing on license tax

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners have set public hearings for noon May 21 and 7 p.m. May 28 on a proposal by Engineer David DeChristofaro for a motor vehicle license tax of between $5 and $15 per year.

DeChristofaro is advocating the tax, but the commissioners decide whether to impose it, place it on the ballot or do nothing, DeChristofaro said.

DeChristofaro said the reason the tax is needed is that the extra money it would generate — between $500,000 and $2.5 million per year — could be used to secure federal and state grants that would allow his department to improve the condition of roads and bridges under his control.

DeChristofaro said he would be committed to using the extra revenue only as matching money to secure grants. Because the county doesn’t have the match money, it misses out on a lot of grants, he said.

“It’s really sickening to me to see all the federal and state dollars out there, and we can’t use any of it,” he said.

One way the roads would improve is that they would be paved more often. Another way is more county roads would be widened, DeChristofaro said.

State law allows the county to impose a $5, $10 or $15 tax on the charge for renewing vehicle registrations each year. The $5 would raise $500,000. The $10 increase would raise $1.5 million, and the $15 would raise $2.5 million, DeChristofaro said. County commissioners would decide which level to impose or put on the ballot, DeChristofaro said.

County roads have been “underfunded for years,” DeChristofaro said, because the office has relied on money from gasoline taxes and licence plate taxes while most other northeast Ohio counties — and many cities in Trumbull County — have also collected the vehicle license tax.

Among the most traveled county roads are Warren-Sharon Road, Tibbetts-Wick Road and Champion Avenue, but the Trumbull County engineer is responsible for 462 miles of roads in all, he said.

DeChristofaro said Trumbull County has the sixth-highest number of accidents in the state and the eighth-highest number of traffic fatalities in the state, while it is 12th highest in population.

Poor and narrow roads are among causes of traffic accidents, he said.

Further, of 14 counties in northeast Ohio, Trumbull is the only one that doesn’t impose at least $5, he said. Seven have $15, two have $10, and four have $5, DeChristofaro said.

Of the 12 most populous counties in Ohio, only Trumbull doesn’t have any a vehicle-license tax, with nine having $15, one having $10 and one having $5, he said.

If the tax were approved, it would be charged to everyone in the county. But residents of communities that already have a tax would only pay the difference between what their community charges and the amount that the county would charge, DeChristofaro said.

For example, for a resident of a city that charges $10, if the county added $15 in vehicle license taxes, the county would get the additional $5, DeChristofaro said.

If the measure goes on the ballot, DeChristofaro would like to see it in November, he said. It would be on the ballot in every precinct in the county, DeChristofaro said.

runyan@vindy.com