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Mahoning sales tax won with support in Youngstown, Boardman, Austintown
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.”
Voters in the city of Canfield, Poland Township, and the villages of New Middletown, Washingtonville and Sebring supported the tax in May, but voted against it Tuesday.
In the general election, the communities leading the no-vote charge were Springfield, where it lost by 454 votes; Smith, where it lost by 311 votes; Green, where it lost by 278 votes; and Beaver, where it lost by 252 votes.
Youngstown also was largely responsible for keeping the county auditor and probate court judge races close as its voters strongly backed the losing candidates in both.
In the auditor race, Youngstown residents favored incumbent Democrat Michael V. Sciortino over Republican Ralph Meacham, 8,763 to 3,663; giving Sciortino 70.5 percent of the city’s vote. It wasn’t enough as Meacham won the county by 2,487 votes — 3.8 percentage points.
Youngstown made up 28.2 percent of all voters in the county who voted for Sciortino.
Meacham won the rest of the county by 14.6 percentage points.
“Republican turnout was better than ours in areas where I knew we would have challenges,” Sciortino said.
Of the 25 communities in the county, Sciortino won six. In addition to Youngstown, Sciortino won in Struthers, Campbell, Coitsville and Lowellville, considered Democratic strongholds, and his hometown of Austintown. But he only received 51.8 percent of the vote in Austintown.
“If you had told me before the election I would be that close in Austintown, I would have had no doubt I’d win,” Meacham said. “I expected to win Canfield, Poland, Boardman, the suburbs and the rural areas. My analysis pretty much held. I had no expectations in Youngstown at all.”
Meacham’s biggest wins were in Boardman by 1,997 votes, Poland Township by 1,201, Canfield Township by 1,148, city of Canfield by 1,044, and Beaver by 927 votes.
In the probate race, Judge Robert Rusu beat Susan Maruca 32,092 to 29,790, a 3.7 percentage point margin of victory.
As its voters did with the county sales tax and Sciortino, Youngstown went strongly for Maruca — the Democratic candidate in the race though political affiliation isn’t included on ballots — with 62.3 percent of the city’s vote, a 2,606-vote win.
Judge Rusu won the rest of the county by 9.6 percentage points.
Maruca also did well in Campbell, her former hometown, with 72.5 percent of the vote, a 904-vote win.
However, she won only seven of the county’s 23 other communities.
Maruca won the Democratic primary because of how well she did in the rural areas.
But in the general election, the only rural areas she won were Coitsville, Smith, Beloit, Craig Beach and Sebring. She also won in Struthers.
“Overall, it seemed to be a rough night for Democrats with low voter turnout,” Maruca said.
Judge Rusu, an independent appointed by a Republican governor and backed by the county GOP, did well in the suburbs and rural areas.
An attorney before his judicial appointment in June, Judge Rusu said he did most of his legal work in Canfield, Austintown, Boardman, Ellsworth and Berlin. He won all of those townships with Boardman being the strongest, a 2,043-vote win.
“I’m well-known in those areas,” he said. “If you asked people in the city of Youngstown, most wouldn’t know my name. But this was the right set of circumstances to run, and I know what I’m doing.”
Both Judge Rusu and Meacham described this election as a “perfect storm.” That’s because of the strong Republican statewide ticket, local political corruption and an indictment alleging more corruption, an anti-President Barack Obama sentiment and their private-sector experience, they said.