Lorain/Elyria, OH
County looks for places to cut after sales tax is voted down
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ELYRIA — A day after Lorain County voters rejected keeping in place a 0.5 percentage point sales tax increase, county officials have begun the job of looking for places to cut.
Officials have estimated that $2 million to $4 million will need to be trimmed from the county’s 2010 budget. Those cuts will be on top of $6 million in cuts that were imposed by county commissioners this year that led to more than 75 county workers, including sheriff’s deputies, being laid off.
“We’re just taking a minute for what has happened to soak in, and then we have to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” said Commissioner Betty Blair.
The first place she said she would cut would be at the Lorain County Regional Airport, a luxury she believes the county can no longer afford.
Other possible cuts mentioned by officials have included Lorain County Transit and economic development, but the additional cuts could hit every county department, even the county justice system, which the sales tax increase — had it become permanent — would have funded.
A student crosses Third Street at West Avenue in Elyria on Wednesday with two campaign signs in the foreground: On left, the Elyria schools levy that did pass, and next to it one for the county sales tax increase that failed. (Photo by Chuck Humel, The Chronicle-Telegram.)
“We’re going to provide the services we can afford,” county Administrator Jim Cordes said. “That’s what the voters told us they wanted.”
The sales tax took a beating throughout the county, with 57.7 percent, or 48,074 voters, opposing it, according to unofficial returns from the county Board of Elections. The tax garnered the support of 42.3 percent, or 35,302 voters.
It won enough support to pass only in three political jurisdictions in the county, with voters in Amherst Township, Lorain and Oberlin supporting the measure.
In Amherst Township, that support was narrow, with 842 residents voting in favor of keeping the sales tax, while 839 voters cast ballots opposing it. Voters in every other township rejected keeping the sales tax in place beyond April 2010.
Commissioner Ted Kalo said he was surprised that township residents didn’t back the sales tax because the commissioners fund the county Sheriff’s Office.
“I would think that the townships, in light of the loss of their police services, which the deputies provide, would have supported it,” Kalo said.
Kalo said supporters of the tax ran a good campaign, knocking on doors, making phone calls, putting up billboards and sending out mailers to voters. The committee supporting Issue 4 raised and spent around $140,000 on the effort, Cordes said.
The work paid off in Lorain, where sheriff’s deputies and other county workers pounded the pavement to drum up support in the closing days of the campaign, Kalo said. According to the election returns, 6,733 Lorain voters cast ballots in favor the tax compared to the 6,700 who voted against it.
Kalo said he wasn’t surprised that the measure was heavily rejected in North Ridgeville, where voters were nearly 2-to-1 against the sales tax, and in Elyria.
With a turnout of about 42.2 percent throughout the county, far more voters cast ballots than anyone expected, Kalo said. That worked against supporters of the sales tax, especially in Elyria, where voters rejected a 0.5 percentage point income tax increase.
There was simply too much antipathy against the income tax in Elyria for the sales tax to survive, even though the number of voters casting ballots for the sales tax was slightly higher than those backing the income tax, Kalo said.
Meanwhile, county officials are gearing up to deal with additional cuts. County Sheriff Phil Stammitti, who co-chaired the committee pushing the sales tax, said he fears he could lose additional deputies and may have to close a wing of the jail.
That could mean between 25 and 40 inmates could be released from the jail, he said. The jail has an average daily population of 445 inmates, he said.
While violent offenders wouldn’t be among those released, Stammitti said he doesn’t relish the idea of releasing any prisoner, but he may have no choice.
“We’re not leaving anything off the table,” he said.
Dave Noll, an adviser to the Lorain County Deputies Association, said the deputies are worried as well, particularly that the road patrol in the townships could face additional cuts. He said he hopes the commissioners will avoid cutting any more from Stammitti’s budget.
“I don’t think they could cut him anymore,” he said. “The road patrol is skeletal right now.”
If his budget does get reduced, Stammitti said he will have to take a hard look at partnering with the townships to find a way to fund the road patrol. He said he simply can’t leave the townships without police protection.
“We’ve got to have some law enforcement to respond to certain things,” he said.
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.
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Commissioner Betty Blair.
“The first place she said she would cut would be at the Lorain County Regional Airport, a luxury she believes the county can no longer afford.”
We were never able to afford that “luxury”. What a waste.
Also, eliminate the advertising budget that posts the commissioners’ faces & names all over the county.
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and how about getting rid of a commish or two. especialy after the took it on themselfs to tax us when we voted it down last year. taxation without repersentation. this aint coloniel england!
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Agreed. how about across the board pay cuts for all gov’t employees??
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the next step should be to vote in all new commissioners. I will never vote for another tax until I see cuts in pay and perks like people working in a manufacturing plant have to take. All government workers should have to take a 15-20% pay cut (work 4 days a week - that’s about all they really work anyway)….county and Elyria personell from the TOP down.
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Why don’t one of you run against Blair in 2010? Now would be a perfect time to do so.
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the reason is, because somehow, these 3 keep getting elected, year after year. Something strange is definitely going on, but until you can prove it, what can you do?
I’m open for ideas…
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You are absolutely right. When Kalo and Kokoski got re-elected I was completely shocked. I don’t care who runs, Democrat or Republican, but someone needs to get them out of office.
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I agree completely!!!! I couldn’t believe they got re-elected, and just realized at that time, that something funny’s going on at county HQ, because these guys are completely despised as commissioners, yet they remain. Nick Brusky should have easily beat Kalo.
I recommend a petition to the state gov’t. If we get enough signatures, maybe some hope, I’ll start the legwork on that.
But don;t hold your breath. A few years ago, I looked into this, and found out there is a state organization of county commissioners (no doubt a union of some type), which at first glance, appeared to be set up to stop uprisings against fellow county commissioners. I’ll look into it more deeply and get back…
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Why not try to put on the ballot something like Cuyahoga citizens just passed?
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Great idea.
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I made reference to this earlier in the week. But if you look at the County’s financial report, it shows that the County has over $100 million in cash & investments. That’s not a misprint…$100 million! I know, I know…fund accounting, you can’t move the money around. But if the County has this much money, that means there’s something broke about our taxing systems and if the Commissioners really cared about the citizens, they’d fix it. The fact that they don’t try is the answer…they don’t care!
Here’s the site to the report:
http://www.loraincounty.com/auditor/notices/2008cafr/2008-CAFR.pdf
Also, on page 48, there’s an audit comment about having too much cash in individual bank accounts (particularly with the risk of failing banks). Here’s what it says…
“Of the County’s bank balance of $28,894,251, $3,384,426 was covered by FDIC. The remaining $25,509,825 is exposed to custodial credit risk because it was uninsured and uncollateralized.” Isn’t that nice!
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The only benefit to the economic downturn is that citizens are starting to pay attention to what their elected officials are doing. There has been rumblings for years about the way the commissioners run this county, but now there’s a chance that people may actually take charge and change the status quo. I urge everyone to get involved. Talk to people, find out who may be running against the clowns in the 3rd Street Palace and support them. Kalo and Kokowski won because they rode the Obama express, which it seems most have gotten off of if you go by the votes in Virginia and New Jersey. I plan on contacting the local Republican party and others to see what I can do to help get these people out of office. Blair is the first one on the list!
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