JEFFERSON — The Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners amended its sales-tax-increase resolution again Tuesday afternoon, aligning it with Board President Joseph Moroski’s steadfast stance of no taxation without first receiving the approval of voters.
Moroski said commissioners met with lawyers from the Ashtabula County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday afternoon in executive session. The legal counsel determined that when the commissioners, in their Jan. 22 work session, amended the original resolution, they should have eliminated the April 1 collection date. Commissioners were working with two different sets of resolutions, one assuming a 3-0 vote and a second assuming a 2-1 vote.
The 3-0 vote resolution would have enacted the sales-tax increase effective April 1. However, the Ashtabula County Prosecutor’s Office determined that the Ohio Revised Code did not allow commissioners to enact the tax as an emergency measure on a resolution passed 2-1. Nevertheless, the emergency language slipped into the final document, which was filed with the Ashtabula County Board of Elections on Jan. 28 to have the issue placed on the May 4 ballot.
“It was our error,” said Commissioner Peggy Carlo.
Bottom line: Voters will have the say on the one-half-percent increase come May 4, and there will not be any collection unless it is approved by a majority of the voters.
“Now, no tax money will be collected until the people have a right to vote on it, which is what I wanted in the first place,” said Moroski, who cast the “no” vote on the original resolution.
Commissioners Carlo and Daniel Claypool wanted to start collecting the sales tax in April in an effort to salvage county government. If voters approve the tax in May, the collection by merchants won’t start until Oct. 1, and the county won’t see any money from it until December, at the earliest.
“We won’t be collecting until October. That’s why we are very diligently working on our budget,” Carlo said.
Additional revenue from the sales-tax increase, estimated at $3.5 million in a full year, won’t be an option in 2010, meaning commissioners will have to live with about $17.8 million in revenues or hope that retail sales in the county do much better than they did in 2009.
Commissioners amended the resolution as part of their agenda meeting Tuesday afternoon.
John Kusar, a member of the committee that has headed up the referendum effort to put the issue to a vote, received a copy of the amended document about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. He said the resolution will be reviewed by the group’s legal counsel, and if the language lines up with their intent to make sure voters have a say on the tax before it’s collected, the effort could be dropped. Kusar said the committee expects to issue a decision today or Thursday.
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People will decide tax
Commissioners: No sales-tax collection ahead of vote
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