Sales tax renewal cheered & jeered

By Peter H. Milliken | July 28, 2009 at 12:09a.m.

Lisa Antonini, democrat, Mahoning County Treasurer and former Chairwoman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party

Placing the sales tax on the Nov. 3 ballot is on today’s county commissioners’ agenda.

YOUNGSTOWN — In sharp contrast to the sparsely attended hearing last week, Mahoning County commissioners got an earful of strong opinions on both sides of the half-percent sales tax renewal in a one-hour hearing attended by about 40 people.

A parade of county department heads and other officials came to the lectern Monday to give the tax renewal an enthusiastic endorsement, including those whose departments depend on the sales-tax-supported general fund and those whose departments operate independently of that fund.

The hearing brought unanimity from county officials, including those who had previously opposed one another.

County Auditor Michael Sciortino, who had opposed the county commissioners’ decision to purchase Oakhill Renaissance Place, spoke in favor of renewing the tax as a continuous measure, as did Treasurer Lisa Antonini,

Renewing the tax will “protect the investments the county taxpayers have made in their county’s central service administration departments,” Sciortino said. “We have and continue to streamline our county government, and we have always lived within our means,” he added.

“This isn’t about personalities. It’s not about the treasurer or the commissioners. It’s about what good policy is,” Antonini said. The sales tax would be needed to maintain county government regardless of who the officeholders are, Antonini said.

Opposing the tax renewal was Stephen McVicker of Youngstown, who said one of the county’s two half-percent sales taxes should be allowed to expire because the county jail, whose construction it was supposed to pay for, has been paid off. “It’s fulfilled its purpose,” he said.

“The one percent sales tax is doing nothing for this county but driving business away, and we’re losing our young people daily,” said another tax opponent, Everett DeRose of Boardman, “What you’re doing is killing the economy,’’ he told the commissioners.

DeRose complained that not enough cuts have been made in county government and said staffing remains excessive. “We’re wasting money hand over fist,” he added.

“We don’t need a permanent tax in this county,” at a time of recession and job losses, said Bill Flickinger of Youngstown. He promised to organize a referendum to rescind the tax if it is renewed continuously.

“If you don’t have the courts and you don’t have the prosecutor’s office and you don’t have the jail, which are by far the biggest part of the general fund, you don’t have security,” said Linette Stratford, chief of the civil division of the county prosecutor’s office. “If you don’t have security, nobody’s coming to this town.”

The placement of the renewal of the sales tax on the Nov. 3 ballot is on the agenda for today’s 9 a.m. meeting of the commissioners in the county courthouse basement. The commissioners are considering asking for a five-year, 10-year or continuous renewal of the tax, which expires at the end of 2010.

The voters renewed the other half-percent sales tax on a continuous basis in May 2007.

Each sales tax raises about $14 million annually for the county’s general fund, which is its main operating fund.

Due to the recession, total general fund revenues this year are projected by the county auditor to be $59 million, compared to $67 million last year.

Besides the sales taxes, other sources of general fund revenues are state funds, the property tax and interest income.

milliken@vindy.com