By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Raising taxes and fees is never popular, but more money is needed to properly maintain road infrastructure, Mahoning County County Engineer Patrick Ginnetti told the county commissioners Thursday.

“Do we want to pay more? No, but we have to,” Ginnetti said.

The discussion was in the context of a state legislative proposal to allow county commissioners to enact a $5 per-vehicle per-year surcharge on Ohio license plates to fund transportation improvements.

If enacted here, the fee increase would add $1.3 million a year to allow Mahoning County to pave 13 additional miles of county roads annually beyond the 15 to 20 miles it now paves each year under the state-funded paving program, Ginnetti said last month.

More than one-third of the county’s roads are in extremely poor condition, with the county engineer’s funding remaining stagnant as material and labor costs rise, he said.

With 485 miles of county roads, Mahoning ranks fifth in the state in road mileage.

State officials tell local officials: “‘Raise taxes. Do everything at the local level,’ after they’ve taken away all the funding that we generated for the state level. We need to start looking the other way around and taking back the money that goes to the state,” said David Ditzler, chairman of the county commissioners.

At the same time, state Sen. Bill Coley of Hamilton introduced a bill that would charge Ohio drivers $149 a year to register their vehicle and pay for road repairs.

Right now, drivers are only required to pay $34.50 to the state. Counties and cities add an extra $20, so it ends up costing around $55. Drivers then would be issued a card that would exempt them from paying the 28 cents per gallon gas tax.

In other business, for the second-consecutive year, the commissioners approved a $7,500 event-sponsorship grant to the Mill Creek MetroParks Foundation from county hotel and motel bed-tax funds for the American Junior Golf Association All-Star Tournament at the Mill Creek Park Golf Course.

The event, for boys and girls, age 12 to 15, will be June 20-22.

Jerry McGee, of East Palestine, a former PGA Tour player and U.S. Ryder Cup Team member, will be the honorary tournament host, Mill Creek MetroParks announced Thursday.

McGee is a four-time PGA Tour tournament winner and was a member of the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup team in 1977.

Last year’s inaugural tournament here, which drew participants from nearly all 50 states and a few from outside the United States, brought more than $250,000 worth of visitor spending to the Mahoning Valley, Linda Macala, county convention and visitors’ bureau director, told the commissioners.