Struthers council weighs property-tax levy

Staff report

STRUTHERS

The city is looking further into placing a property-tax levy that is specific to street resurfacing on the May 6 ballot.

City council at its regular meeting Wednesday passed a resolution requesting that the Mahoning County auditor certify to the city its total current tax valuation, along with the dollar amount of revenue that would be generated by each property-tax levy within the 10-mill limitation.

Robert Carcelli, 4th Ward councilman, said passage of the resolution Wednesday doesn’t guarantee that a street-resurfacing program levy will be placed on the May ballot; it simply starts the fact-finding process and provides to city council the information needed to make an educated decision on the matter.

Once the report is prepared by the auditor, which should take a few weeks, it then will be discussed by city council’s finance and legislation committee, then by city council as a whole, said Tony Fire, 1st Ward councilman.

If the city does decide to place the levy on the May ballot, it must submit the language to the county board of elections no later than 90 days before the election.

Fire added that city officials have been discussing a potential levy for “quite a while,” especially after a roadway-condition analysis done by MS Consultants this year found that more than half of the city’s streets will require resurfacing within the next four years.