Mahoning County’s budget a selling point for sales tax

A public hearing last week in Canfield on the renewal of a half-percent sales tax in Mahoning County attracted a disappointingly small audience, made up mostly of county government employees. Bad weather was to blame.

There will be another hearing Monday evening at the Covelli Centre in downtown Youngstown. Bad weather may again affect citizen turnout. If it does, commissioners David Ludt, Anthony Traficanti and John V. McNally IV would do well to schedule another one. Why? Because the defeat of the sales tax last November was an indication of the distrust many residents have of county government.

While it is true that the decision to make the tax permanent — the ballot language contained the word continuous, rather than five or 10 years — angered many voters, the fact remains that in the midst of an economic recession even the renewal of a tax becomes a major challenge.

Voters were also turned off by the seeming incompetence of government in dealing with the ballot language for the sales tax renewal as officials traded charges as to who dropped the ball.

The commissioners need to restore residents’ faith in county government, which is why having a public hearing attended by more than just officeholders and others on the payroll is strongly advised.

Cutting costs

Indeed, it would be an opportunity for Ludt, Traficanti and McNally to showcase what they have done, in conjunction with other elected officials, to slash operating costs. Their decision, for instance, to adopt a temporary general fund budget of $5 million for the first month of this year is an illustration of just how difficult it is going to be to balance revenues and expenditures.

Last year, the general fund took in $57.2 million, which was $2.2 million below projections. This year, the county is anticipating only $57 million, and even that depends on how well the local economy recovers. To understand what the county has experienced, consider that in 2008, general fund revenues totaled $66 million.

And if the half-percent sales tax is again rejected, the consequences will be unimaginable.

As it is, commissioners are seeking a continuation of concessions by employees that were put in place last year. Some expire at the end of June, and county Administrator George Tablack has said they need to be extended through this year.

They include cuts in work hours through unpaid rolling holidays and increased employee contributions to their health-care premiums.

Many workers in the private sector have been living with these kinds of concessions for years — in addition to wage freezes or givebacks and other reductions in compensation and benefits.

Taxpayers should be given a chance to vent — and to hear from the commissioners the steps that have been taken to deal with the budgetary crisis.