JEFFERSON — The committee formed to hold a referendum on the proposed increase in the county sales tax withdrew its effort Wednesday.
“We would like to announce at this time that the commissioners have heard the will of the people and removed the early-April taxing language and, instead, will let the people vote on this issue first in May,” stated Roy Brommer in a press release. “As of today, the referendum is over.”
The action followed a vote by the Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday to amend once again the resolution that originally called for the sales tax to go into effect April 1, 2010, and continue for five years.
During a Jan. 22 work session that followed the second public hearing on the sales tax, commissioners amended the resolution to include placing the issue before voters in May. On Tuesday, commissioners met with legal counsel from the Ashtabula County Prosecutor’s Office and were given the opinion they could not begin collecting the tax prior to putting it to a vote because the resolution was not passed unanimously.
The referendum committee obtained a copy of the amended resolution and submitted it to legal counsel for an opinion. Committee members said they are satisfied the amended document will give voters the opportunity to have their say without the tax being implemented beforehand.
“We got what we wanted, which is the vote of the people,” committee member John Kusar said.
The effort was bipartisan and was not about the tax itself but the people’s right to vote on it, said committee members.
The referendum effort, which had just 30 days during which to collect roughly 3,400 valid signatures, generated about 2,000 signatures before it was discovered that the front pages of the petitions had an incorrect date on them. On Monday, new petitions were placed in the hands of circulators, and Kusar estimates they garnered at least that many signatures on the second round.
All signature collection efforts ceased Wednesday afternoon, and the committee has canceled an all-day effort planned for the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Geneva.
The committee members said Wednesday afternoon that they appreciated the legal counsel of State Sen. Tim Grendell and Geneva attorney Gary Pasqualone, who provided the service without cost. State Sen. Capri Cafaro also provided input.
“In addition, we would like to thank Commissioner Joe Moroski. Without his ‘no’ vote on these resolutions, we never would have had this opportunity to let our voices be heard,” said Brommer in a statement.
The decision to raise the sales tax to 7 percent now goes to the voters May 4. If approved, the tax would go into effect Oct. 1 and be in place for five years. Commissioners have said they will earmark money for the sheriff, jail, Youth Detention Center and similar county administrative and justice services.
Committee members could not predict how the vote will go in May, based upon the response to the petition drive.
“It all depends on how fed up the people are,” said Charlie Frye, a committee member. “There is a real anti-government, anti-tax sentiment out there.”
Commissioners Peggy Carlo and Daniel Claypool said in the hearings that they needed to start collecting the additional sales tax before it was put to a vote because it takes months to get the tax collection in place. Waiting until a vote was taken in November, their original plan, would have delayed collection until 2011. A PowerPoint presentation by Claypool indicated that increasing revenue immediately through the tax increase would help bring the county’s spending back to 2009 levels.
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