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Trustees approve next step to get three replacement levies on November ballot
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Township officials took the next step toward placing three levies before voters in November.
Trustees unanimously approved resolutions Monday for the necessity of three five-year levies – one park and two road levies. They requested certification from the Mahoning County auditor on millage rates.
All three existing issues have lost millage due to inflation, since two were passed in 1976 and one in 1981.
After the certification is received from the county, the trustees can vote to place the issues on the November ballot.
The trustees approved seeking a 0.8-mill park levy. An addition of 0.4-mill would provide an additional $200,000 annually, and Austintown Parks supervisor Todd Shaffer has said that if approved, he would pursue a new a playground project estimated at $57,000.
The two road levies would be for 1 mill and 1.5-mills. Mike Dockry, township administrator and road superintendent, has said that the additional 0.5 mill and 1 mill would bring in an additional $850,000 annually for road work, or equal to eight miles of paving.
Owners of a $100,000 home currently pay $14 a year for the park levy and $31 combined yearly for the two road levies. If approved, the park levy would require an increase of $14 a year and a combined $52 a year for the two road levies.
In other business Monday, Trustee Ken Carano provided an update on the $500,000 racino payment that was promised to the township in the initial legislation that brought seven racinos to the Buckeye State. He said it has been quiet since a racino summit between local and state officials from the six racino communities that took place in late March.
Penn National is the parent company of Austintown’s Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course.
“Our argument is the fact that the governor should call for negotiations” among the municipalities and racino operators, Carano said. “The only thing” that Kasich and the racino operators “both agree on is the fact that we should get the money.”
The payment was promised to be an annual $500,000 payment to the host communities, but where the funds would come from was never specified. That lack of clarity led to a scramble to get an amendment added onto a House bill late last year that was line-item vetoed by Kasich because it included funds coming from the state and limited the payment to three years for racinos in Dayton and Austintown.
Ohio Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, has said he will work to get racino payment legislation into the Ohio Senate version of the state budget. It was not included in the final Ohio House version. Meanwhile, Carano said he and the other racino communities are asking the governor “emphatically” for a meeting. “We would like to sit down and negotiate with these people face to face,” he said.