By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com
JEFFERSON — The first public hearing on the proposed increase to the county’s transfer tax failed to draw public input Thursday afternoon.
Ashtabula County commissioners held the hearing to receive comments on the proposal to increase the transfer tax on real estate and manufactured homes from 20 cents per $100 transferred, to 30 cents.
The proposal came out of a work session held with county elected officials last month. Proponents of increasing the tax say surrounding counties are already at the 30 cents figure.
Commissioners see the tax increase as one way to make up a portion of the revenues lost because of the recession’s impact on sales-tax revenues and interest income.
Commissioner Daniel Claypool said the money would help fund a third position in the county’s tax map room, which is used extensively by professionals involved in real-estate transactions. He said neither the auditor’s office nor the engineer’s has the money to staff the room fully. Claypool said if the map room were to close, it would bring the real-estate sector of county government to a standstill.
Commissioner Joseph Moroski reiterated his position on the matter: no new taxes.
“It has the potential to be harmful to our seniors,” Moroski said of the tax, which is the seller’s responsibility. He said raising it would reduce proceeds from sales at a time when home values are falling and the margin between selling prices and mortgage indebtedness is shrinking.
“Unemployment in the county just crested at 14 percent,” Moroski said. “Raising taxes at this time, I just don’t think is appropriate.”
The second and final public hearing on the tax will be 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the commissioners’ meeting room, on the second floor of the Old Courthouse.
