Austintown key in passage of sales tax this time around

YOUNGSTOWN

Support from those casting ballots in Youngstown, Boardman and Austintown for Mahoning County’s 0.75-percent sales tax were enough to offset “no” votes from smaller suburbs and rural residents.

The tax to renew an existing 0.5- percent sales tax and add another 0.25 percent for five years passed by 1,248 votes, a 1.9 percent margin of victory. A 0.5-percent permanent county sales tax on the May ballot lost by 531 votes, a 1.6 percent margin of defeat.

While both taxes received 53.5 percent of the vote in Youngstown, the total number of votes made the difference between losing in May and winning in November.

The tax on the May ballot won in Youngstown by 470 votes. The tax on Tuesday’s ballot won by 1,890 votes in Youngstown.

In Boardman, the May tax won by 103 votes compared with 820 for Tuesday’s tax issue.

Austintown voted against the tax issue in May, rejecting it by 153 votes; the township approved it last week by 300 votes.

Of the 25 municipalities and townships in the county, seven voted in favor of it in November compared with 11 in May.

“The same areas kind of felt the same way,” said county Commissioner David Ditzler. “Austintown converting and we had a larger number of people vote this time made the difference. That helped overcome the high percentage of defeats in the outlying areas. It’s good there aren’t a large number of voters in those areas.”

The victory, he said, is “no mandate by any stretch of the imagination. We went to the outlying areas to provide information, but it’s an uphill battle.”

Read details of the breakdown in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.