Police levy shows trustees’ error

Police levy shows trustees’ error

Austintown trustees are placing a replacement levy to fund police expenses on the March ballot. A few months ago these same trustees voted in block to condemn Senate Bill 5, which would have made common sense changes to public union bargaining and benefits in Ohio. It would have begun returning them to private sector levels — something we taxpayers could afford now and in the future.

According to the trustees, the proposed 2-mill levy will replace the existing 1.6-mill levy passed in 1976 which, due to current reduced property valuations, is only providing 38 percent of its original 1976 value, or about $357,000 annually. The new levy is supposed to raise over $1.1 million per year.

Did the Austintown trustees not know they had a shortfall when they unanimously opposed S.B. 5? They, along with nearly all other local elected officials, told everyone that they did not need S.B. 5 to help them manage their budget without tax increases. Did they all intentionally mislead their constituents? Will they come back later for more money for firefighters or EMS or some other purpose? You be the judge.

Prior to the November election, I suggested voters read the actual S.B. 5 bill as published in The Vindicator to see for themselves what changes were being made rather than believe the more than $30 million in misleading ads made by the public sector unions and the Democratic party, the unions’ party of choice. We are all now faced with the distasteful choices Gov. Kasich and many others foretold: (1) cutting of local budgets including public sector service and staffing, or (2) tax increases to pay for the better than private sector benefits of the public sector unions.

Our Austintown trustees are proposing the second option and hoping we’ll forget their duplicity, but I strongly suggest we take the first option until we revisit S.B. 5 changes as soon as possible. I’d also suggest that our trustees take a good hard look at their budget and cut anything and everything they can safely cut across the board. Since we taxpayers have all tightened our belts and cut our own expenses to the bone for the past five years, with absolutely no end in sight, and with rising inflation and energy costs, our elected officials must now do the same. I simply cannot afford this, or any other, exorbitant increase in property tax regardless of the purpose. I will vote no on this replacement levy in March, and I urge every Austintown resident to do the same.

Michael J. Novak, Austintown