JEFFERSON — Ashtabula County commissioners Daniel Claypool and Peggy Carlo have officially placed the sales-tax increase issue on the May ballot.

“We are serious about this,” Claypool said as he filed the papers at the Ashtabula County Board of Elections on Wednesday afternoon. “This is a very serious situation. This is not a political issue; it’s a people situation.”

The issue, which needs a majority affirmative vote, would keep the sales-tax increase in place for five years.

The board voted 2-1 Friday to raise the county’s portion of the sales and use tax from 1 percent to 1.5 percent, effective April 1. Commissioners originally planned to place the issue on the November ballot but amended the resolution during a work session following the public hearings last week.

“I couldn’t do this if I didn’t think it was the right thing to do for Ashtabula County,” Carlo said Wednesday.

Board of Commissioners President Joseph Moroski, who voted against the resolutions, did not attend the photo opportunity at the Board of Elections.

Duane Feher, deputy Board of Elections director, said the filing will be reviewed by the board when it convenes Feb. 24 to review issues and candidates for the May 4 ballot. He did not see any problems with the filing or the timing involved in getting it on the ballot.

“They file it. Now, we review it and will consult with the Secretary of State’s Office to see what the wording will be,” Feher said.

On Tuesday, members of a referendum committee launched an effort to collect the 3,800 valid signatures needed to get a referendum on the November ballot. By law, the issue cannot go on the primary ballot.

On the surface, therefore, a referendum would appear to be a moot point: Commissioners are giving voters that opportunity six months earlier than what the referendum would do. The wild card is whether filing a referendum would preclude a ballot issue in May or halt collection of the extra sales tax beginning in April.

“We will have to review that with legal counsel,” Feher said when asked what the board will do if the referendum is filed within the 30-day time frame provided by the Ohio Revised Code.

Several members of the referendum group accused the Democratic commissioners of withholding from them certified copies of the resolutions, which are necessary to start the petition drive. Claypool said the resolutions first had to be reviewed by legal counsel before they could be released. The group received its copies Monday morning.

Commissioners hope to collect seven months of increased sales taxes in 2010. The increase is expected to raise an additional $3.5 million annually. However, if voters reject the increase in May, only one month — April — will be collected. Drastic budget cuts are forecast for the auditor, commissioners, treasurer, recorder, clerk of courts and agriculture, among others, if the tax increase is defeated.

“We will live by that vote,” Claypool said. “All the people have the right to choose.”

Moroski voted against the resolutions because he felt citizens should have the right to vote on new taxes before they are enacted. Claypool and Carlo agree taxpayers should have a voice, but at the same time, state they need to enact the issue effective April 1 in order to have the increased tax in place for the balance of the year. If they had waited for the voters to make the call in May, the tax would not have gone into effect until Oct. 1, and it would be December before the money would trickle into the county’s coffers.

Meanwhile, the county is operating under a temporary budget. Commissioners meet today to work on budget matters, but the huge caveats will be how voters respond to the tax question in May and what effect the referendum effort will have on the tax increase’s implementation.