Regional chamber endorses only portion of county tax measure on Nov. ballot

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber has issued a news release saying its board has endorsed renewal of Mahoning County’s half-percent sales tax, but county officials are puzzled by the chamber’s silence on the additional quarter-percent sales tax contained in Issue 1.

The chamber said that without the tax renewal, county government “would come nearly to a screeching halt.”

The chamber’s news release, however, was silent on the extra quarter percent that is in the combined renewal and additional tax question appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot.

“The board did not take a position on adding a quarter percent,” said Guy C. Coviello, the chamber’s vice president of government affairs and media.

If passed, the entire three quarters of a percent would raise about $24 million a year, exclusively for the sheriff’s, prosecutor’s, and coroner’s offices and 911 emergency dispatching center.

“I’m not sure what they mean by their [press release] because the entire issue is one issue,” Sheriff Jerry Greene said of the chamber.

The full three quarters of a percent is needed to compensate for losses in recent years to the county’s general fund in state money and investment income, the sheriff said.

“It’s filling a hole,” he said.

Without the three quarters of a percent, those losses “will cause layoffs to my office in 2015,” the sheriff added.

Read more about the issue in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.