Mahoning commissioners urge active campaign for sales tax

By Peter H. Milliken

Voters will be asked to extend the tax, which expires Sept. 30, for five years.

YOUNGSTOWN — All Mahoning County department heads should actively campaign for renewal of the county’s half-percent sales tax, commissioners said after unanimously placing the issue on the May 4 primary ballot as a five-year measure.

“It truly is the responsibility of all of those officials to make themselves present and accountable,” said Commissioner John A. McNally IV, who also asked township trustees to help with the campaign.

“The responsibility of communicating the message of how county government works is not solely the responsibility of the three county commissioners and the county administrator and our staff,” he said Thursday.

“We need every officeholder out there” campaigning, added Anthony T. Traficanti, chairman of the commissioners.

Traficanti also urged all county employees and their family members and friends to work for passage of the tax, whose continuous renewal voters rejected in November.

The May election is the last opportunity to achieve uninterrupted collection of the tax, which expires Sept. 30.

“Many people here need their jobs. Go out and work for it. Tell the people what you do in the county. Tell them the importance of why we need the half-penny renewed,” Traficanti urged. “The taxpayers are looking at us to step up as leaders and tell them what we have done with their money and what sacrifices we have made.”

James M. Fortunato, county purchasing director, said, “For me, passage of the sales tax is a quality-of-life issue. I want a criminal justice system that’s going to keep me safe. I want an infrastructure that’s going to be maintained so that companies will look forward to expansion and relocating here. I don’t want to see my property depreciate anymore.”

Almost 68 percent of the county’s general-fund spending goes to the courts and law enforcement, including the county jail.

“Safety is the No. 1 commodity we’re attempting to sell as a county government, and that is only done by trying to keep our largest facility and our largest department in the general fund operating,” said county Administrator George J. Tablack.

Each of the county’s two sales taxes generates between $13 million and $14 million annually for the county’s general fund.

The voters permanently renewed the county’s other half-percent sales tax in May 2007.

“We need the sales tax to pass in order to operate the court. We think what the commissioners have done today is the right thing,” said Probate Judge Mark Belinky. “All of the county offices have reduced their spending and their numbers of employees.”

After making a variety of cost cuts, Judge Belinky requested only $842,000 from the general fund for his court this year, compared with the $894,833 he received for 2009 in the settlement of the lawsuit he brought against the commissioners.

The judge filed that mandamus lawsuit in the 7th District Court of Appeals to enforce his demand for $915,715 for 2009 after the commissioners allocated only $694,833 to his court last year.

milliken@vindy.com