Friday, May 29, 2009
By Denise Dick
Trumbull is the only Northeast Ohio county without a permissive auto license tax.
LIBERTY — If Trumbull County commissioners vote to impose a $15 per- vehicle license tax, Engineer David DeChristofaro says the money will be used solely for road and bridge projects.
“I would ask the county commissioners to write into the resolution that that’s the way it has to be used,” DeChristofaro said at a public hearing on the proposed fee.
The tax would be paid by residents upon renewing their license plates each year.
Those in the crowd of about 50 at the public hearing Thursday at the township administration building voiced both support and opposition.
“This is something that should have been done years ago,” said Bill Padisak, who works in Warren. “One of my daughters drives over one of those bridges to work every day. I’m going to call her. That terrifies me.”
Padisak was referring to slides that DeChristofaro showed of roads and bridges in disrepair.
Gail Godfry says she travels Tibbetts-Wick Road, one of the roads DeChristofaro said needs repaired, and she supports the fee.
“I think this is a much-needed tax,” she said. She thinks it’s not much to pay for good roads and bridges and for safety.
John Burke, on the other hand, opposes it.
“We don’t have any money,” Burke said. “No one has one car anymore. We all have two or three with trailers. It’s not going to cost $15. It’s going to cost $30 or $60.”
Mickie Foltz said she wasn’t speaking for or against the fee, but believes it should be placed on the ballot to allow voters to decide.
Thursday was the second of two public hearings on the proposed permissive auto license tax. Commissioners will decide whether to impose the tax and its amount — $5, $10 or $15. The amounts were determined by the state Legislature, which allowed counties to impose them.
Trumbull has never acted on that, although several municipalities within the county have.
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 is asking them to impose the $15 tax which would generate $2.5 million per year, he said.
DeChristofaro said he would use that money as a match for state and federal dollars and plans to rebuild 60 bridges and reconstruct 110 miles of road.
The matching money would be used to secure federal and state grants. Without a local match, the county can’t receive those dollars.
Trumbull is the only one of the 14 Northeast Ohio counties that doesn’t have a permissive auto license tax. Both Mahoning and Columbiana residents pay $15 per vehicle per year.
About two-thirds of Ohio’s 88 counties have a permissive auto license tax, the engineer said. Of those that don’t, most have populations of about 40,000, he said.
Trumbull’s population exceeds 200,000. All 11 other Ohio counties with populations of more than 200,000 have a permissive auto license tax.
About 25 percent of the county’s bridges are ranked from poor to imminent failure, according to the federal highway rating system, and Trumbull ranks 10th in Ohio counties in the number of deficient bridge decks.