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Rejection of income tax increase in Canfield sends strong message
On the side
Because Joe Louis Teague sought elected office so many times, I spoke to him often. While Joe, who died two weeks ago, never won anything besides two Democratic precinct committee races, it didn’t deter him from running.
My favorite Joe story came after I wrote in a January 2012 column that he didn’t have a chance to win the Democratic primary in March for a Mahoning County commissioner seat.
Of course, he lost.
But Joe left me the greatest voicemail I ever received in which he frequently used a profanity.
As the actual word would never get in the paper, it ended with “hole” and I’ll use that to paraphrase Joe’s message.
“I love you. You’re a great reporter, but you’re a ‘hole.’ You do great work. I respect you, but you’re a ‘hole.’” It went on like that for about two or three minutes with Joe ending the message saying, “Call me.”
I did and the two of us had a great laugh.
Joe was colorful, entertaining, and had a big heart. I’ll miss him.
When people believe you’re trying to pull a fast one on them, they can get upset.
And if they have a way to stop you, there’s a pretty decent chance they’ll do it.
This is a lesson Canfield city officials learned Tuesday. City voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to raise their income tax by 0.5 percent during a special election.
Special elections are legal under state law – though I question the wisdom of them – but government entities and school districts that put issues on them do so at their own peril.
What is particularly unreal about what Canfield city officials tried to pull was the justification for placing the income tax increase on the August special election ballot.
“An important issue like this, I would like to see as a stand-alone issue” to get an “honest, true perspective” on it, city Manager Joe Warino said in April when city council voted to have the tax on the ballot.
The city could have waited until the Nov. 3 general election to seek approval for the proposed tax increase.
Instead, city officials likely thought that turnout for special elections in early August is usually terrible. If they could get their supporters to the polls, they could get the tax passed. That, at least, is conventional thinking.
But it’s not accurate.
Since 2001, 27 tax issues were put on ballots in the Mahoning Valley during special elections in either February or August.
Of those, only eight passed, with about half being new taxes.
That’s a pretty poor rate of success.
If Canfield city officials thought their residents weren’t paying attention, they were mistaken.
Turnout
Thirty percent turnout is terrible in most cases. But it’s pretty good for a special election. It was actually better than the 18 percent turnout for the May 5 primary.
Those who voted in the Canfield special election had a message to city officials: No!
Of those who voted, 73 percent rejected the tax increase request.
The lesson cost the city about $10,000.
They should have known better.
Right before the election, Warino said he hadn’t received a single phone call on the issue.
“I don’t understand why people aren’t asking a million questions,” he said to Vindicator reporter Robert Connelly.
Why ask questions when you already know you can’t afford to pay more taxes?
The issue won’t be on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Even if it was, it would have struggled to get approval.
Many voters in the Mahoning Valley don’t seem to think twice about tax renewals even though they should. Almost all renewals get approved with the sales pitch being residents aren’t paying new taxes so why question what government and school systems are doing.
But put additional taxes in front of them and voters think twice.
There will be 31 tax issues on the ballot in the general election in Mahoning County. There are three additional taxes, a new school bond issue in Poland, and four renewal/increase proposals up for consideration in the Nov. 3 election.
It’s the most for a general election in the county since 2005 when there were 32 on the ballot. Other general elections with a lot of issues include 2012 with 27 and in 2010 with 29. During other years, the number of issues ranged from 11 in 2013 to 18 in 2006.