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Tax benefits everyone, official says
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
Renewing Mahoning County’s half-percent sales tax is the best thing local voters can do to help themselves in difficult economic times, sales-tax supporters say.
“This is one opportunity for people of our community to take control and to be able to contribute directly to their well-being,” said Joseph F. Caruso of Austintown, a volunteer with the Committee for Our Future, which is promoting the sales tax.
“It’s a nonpartisan issue. It’s a fair tax. ...It’s an important issue for the economic development and stability of Mahoning County,” said Karen Armeni of Poland, campaign chairwoman. Rent, groceries and medicine are not taxed, she added.
“This is not a political issue. Everybody benefits from the sales tax,” said Janet Kust of Campbell, campaign treasurer. As a renewal, “It’s something we’ve been paying all along,” she said of the tax, which will appear as Issue 3.
“It is a community issue, and this is one of the only taxes, one of the only opportunities for Mahoning County to take care of itself,” Caruso said. “We cannot wait for the state or federal government to give us the revenue to provide the services that are vital to our community,” he added.
The sales tax, which is on the May 4 ballot as a five-year renewal, is paid not only by county residents, but also by people who make purchases in the county, but live elsewhere.
Some 40 percent of customers at Southern Park Mall in Boardman, who pay this tax on their purchases at that regional mall, live outside of Mahoning, Caruso noted. Those who buy cars here pay this tax, regardless of where they live, he added.
“We, as a community, receive the benefit of somebody else’s tax dollar helping us out,” observed Caruso, a former assistant county administrator. He is now executive director of the Burdman Group, a Youngstown-based mental health agency.
The sales tax also offers “a great return on our investment,” because it generates local matching money for state and federal grants, he added.
The campaign slogan is “Renewing security and justice for half of a penny.”
The county has two half-percent sales taxes, each raising about $13 million annually for the county’s general fund. Together they generate about half of the general fund’s revenue. The other sales tax was renewed continuously in May 2007.
The general fund is the county’s main operating fund, and about 70 percent of the money spent from it goes to the criminal justice system, which includes the sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices and the courts.
“If they cannot provide swift and effective justice, the community will suffer because it will not be safe,” Caruso said.
Kust said the campaign expects to spend about $20,000, all of it from private donations. Newspaper advertising is planned, and the campaign hopes to advertise on radio and TV if funds permit, she added.
The countywide sales tax issue is a renewal at the current rate, but another significant ballot question concerns a proposed increase in Lowellville’s village income tax from 1.5 percent to 2 percent.
The village income tax raised $318,000 last year, and the increase, if approved by the voters, would generate an additional $100,000 annually, village officials said.
Village officials said they need the increase to provide matching money for state grants for street, sidewalk and curb projects, and to pay for fire engine repairs, raises for underpaid village employees, and escalating costs for street lighting, road salt and diesel fuel. The village income tax rate has not changed since 1976.