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Trumbull commissioners to provide $78,000 in bed-tax money for deployment hub
Bed-tax funds will aid in bringing deployment center to airport
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
Trumbull County commissioners on Wednesday approved giving the Western Reserve Port Authority about $78,000 more per year in hotel-motel taxes to help it pay for a building at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport that is expected to become a military deployment hub.
The port authority bought the 24,650-square-foot former air-cargo building on Ridge Road on the west side of the airport several years ago for about $1 million to resolve problems the Federal Aviation Admistration had with the airport selling the building to a private company for nonaviation uses.
Col. James Dignan, commander of the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, which shares runways and other aviation facilities with the airport, proposed using the building and its 11-acre FAA-funded cargo apron to deploy troops from all branches of the military.
The troops would come from Northeast Ohio, western Pennylvania, northwestern New York and nearby parts of West Virginia, Dignan said.
It is also expected to serve as a staging and response area for the Ohio/Regional Chapters of the American Red Cross and Ohio Emergency Management Agency in the event of an emergency in the region.
Ron Klingle, port authority chairman, said there is no guarantee that the U.S. Defense Department will establish the deployment center at the facility, but he expects it will.
“Nothing is for sure until it’s finalized, but there have been some high-level discussions about the military using it,” Klingle said. “It should happen without much difficulty at all.”
Dignan and others have touted the deployment center as a way to increase the value of the base in a way that could help it survive future reductions in military facilities across the country.
The idea got a boost from the Ohio General Assembly in May when it approved legislation granting $250,000 to pay part of the money the port authority paid to acquire the building. The $78,000 will pay the annual cost of the loan the port authority took out to acquire it, Klingle said.
“What they did is a great investment in our community’s future,” Klingle said of the Trumbull commissioners.
Commissioner Frank Fuda noted that the air base is the third-largest employer in the Mahoning Valley, so it’s important for everyone to do what they can to help it remain open.
The hotel-motel, or bed tax, is collected on guests who stay at the area’s lodging. To give the port authority additional bed tax money, Trumbull’s commissioners shifted a half percent of the hotel-motel taxes from the Trumbull County Tourism Bureau to the port authority.
An added benefit of moving the money is that the Trumbull commissioners will now be providing bed tax money at the same rate to the port authority as Mahoning County, said Fuda.
Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti has been asking Trumbull County for a few years now to achieve parity with Mahoning County, Fuda said.
The tourism bureau has maintained a healthy cash balance and can withstand the loss of the funds, Fuda said.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, wrote the Trumbull commissioners a letter urging them to provide the additional bed-tax money.
“The allocation split of 3.5 percent to the [port authority] and 1.5 percent to the [tourism bureau] would identically match the contribution allocations made by the Mahoning County Board of Commissioners,” he said.
“Given the recent defense budget cuts, sequestration, and Base Realignment and Closure considerations, the need to support [the air base] is greater than ever,” he said.