Inter-government tug-of-wars, especially for tax dollars, can make for good theater. In Girard Monday night, it made for a new job:
Counting cars.
V&M Star is producing plenty of jobs and tax dollars for the Valley.
Girard is struggling to ensure it gets its share of those dollars.
It is the feisty little Jack Russell trying to ensure it’s place at the food bowl — squeezing in between the Youngstown Rottweiler and the V&M Beauceron (large French herding dog; internet research, thank you).
It had a legendary tussle several years ago for initial land settling for the V&M project.
Monday — it was whether V&M workers are really working in Girard, or if they park in Girard but actually do their work in Youngstown.
It’s 2 percent income tax to Girard and 2.75 percent tax to Youngstown.
Girard Mayor Melfi — who gets credit for winning the initial tax stare-down over V&M land a couple years ago, ordered his city treasurer to count cars at the lot, arguing that if they’re parking on the Girard side, then they are working on the Girard side.
Given that Girard income tax is lower than Youngstown’s, one would think it’s the city that should be counting cars.
Craaaaaaazzzzy. Stay tuned for this.
Thankfully, the facility is too big to roll up and move to another state.
Next headline prediction:
On which part of the property was the toilet flushed?