Chamber endorses sales-tax renewal

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The defeat next Tuesday of the Mahoning County five-year, half-percent sales tax could destroy the area’s positive economic momentum, a Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber official said.

The chamber’s board of directors is endorsing the sales tax, its members announced Monday.

“Probably the most compelling reason to renew the tax is that the Mahoning Valley appears to be on the verge of an economic renaissance with new companies locating to the Valley and existing companies such as [V&M] Star expanding their operations,” said Matt Blair, a Niles attorney who is chairman of the chamber’s government-affairs council and a member of its board of directors.

“This is not the time for Mahoning County to give itself a black eye by going into fiscal emergency or worse ... when it is so critical that we put our best foot forward,” he added.

The half-percent tax raises about $13 million annually. Voters rejected renewing the tax on a permanent basis in the November 2009 election. The chamber endorsed that tax as well.

The county has a permanent half-percent sales tax, approved by voters in May 2007.

County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti thanked the chamber for its support. Without the sales tax renewal, the county’s operations would be crippled, he said.

“It will be an impossibility for government to function [after] losing the sales tax,” Traficanti said.

The commissioner stressed that this is not a new tax but a renewal of an existing one.

Traficanti also had this message: “If you have any grudges against any political entities, please put that to the side and do the right thing and vote for the half-penny sales tax. The services are so vital to the community that it will be impossible for us to move ahead into the future.”