Voters to see county sales tax referendum

By Mike Ford, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (4 months, 2 weeks ago)
Print

Aside from the hotly-contested mayoral race in Lima, the most controversial Allen County issue on the Nov. 3 ballot may be a sales tax measure.
Commissioners passed a .5-percent increase in July. A group of residents gathered signatures for a referendum, so voters will render a final decision from the ballot booth.
The small increase has been likened to the cost of a candy bar on each $100 spent. It is estimated to generate $5 million and will only last for three years, as passed by the commissioners. Nonetheless, some oppose it.
Commissioners Dan Reiff and Sam Bassitt approved the measure, while Commissioner Greg Sneary voted against it.
Sneary said voters should ask themselves a question prior to casting their vote.
“Now is the time to prioritize. We have mandated services like law enforcement and courts. Then, outside of that, we have discretionary spending. At a time like this, should non-mandated agencies be funded by the government? If the answer is ‘yes,’ then to what degree? These questions have not really been asked through all of this and if government won’t prioritize in this environment, it never will,” he said.
Earlier this year, several county-funded agencies underwent severe cuts as commissioners wrestled to balance the 2009 budget. Reiff said Crime Victim Services, Regional Transit Authority and others are essential to residents’ way of life. Local funding to the OSU Extension was cut so drastically, the office closed its doors, breaking the hearts of many in the agriculture community. Though these agencies were cut in such a way as to minimize the effects to law enforcement, Reiff says the sheriff’s office has still been impacted.
“We’ve had people from the sheriff’s department and juvenile court say they have to decide who the least-violent offender they have locked up is, so they can let him back out on the street to make room for an even more violent offender. This is not a threat or a possibility — we had a young man get convicted where the victim was shot in the face with a sawed-off shotgun. The economic situation we’re in isn’t just a year or two situation. Even if it recovers, we’ll be recovering from the basement,” he said.
Sneary is concerned his colleagues have not been daring enough to withhold all discretionary spending in order to build a ‘cushion’ that could prevent cutting law enforcement, corrections and courts in a detrimental manner as the matter digresses.
“My biggest concern right now is that this tax increase was the county’s last recourse to raise revenue — there is no other option allowed by law. At this point, we have completely exhausted all revenue-enhancing. If anything else happens in the future, cuts will have to be made and it won’t matter how severe they are because we’ll have no other option. In my opinion, we never investigated other avenues; it was ‘let’s just go for the tax’ and that was it. I’m afraid the attitude now is ‘OK, we have the money, so let’s quit talking about saving more money from here on out’,” he said.
The effort to bring the matter before voters was led by former county auditor Ben Diepenbrock. He got involved to make sure enough emphasis is placed on cost-cutting before more money is requested.
“Businesses and families are having a tough time. Rather than request additional money or subsidies, it’s up to families and businesses to cut costs. I believe at this point, it’s something for the county to continue to pursue. I do know some of those things could have been done a little earlier and we could be implementing some of those cost-containing measures,” he said.
Allen County Auditor Rhonda Eddy explained the 2009 budget was boosted with “one-time” dollars no longer laying at the bottom of county coffers.
“Looking at the sales tax this year from last year, we’re down 12.84 percent. That revenue goes to the General Fund and a couple other funds. The amounts have been changed to put more in the General Fund, so we’re doing OK,” She said. “We added $2 million of one-time money that we had this year — $1.2 million from the Rainy Day Fund and about $800,000 from other funds — to make this year’s budget work. For this year, we’re OK but at the end of the year, we’ll end up with an estimated $2 million carry-over. If we take the same expenditures and revenue we had this year and apply it to next year, knowing utility costs will go up and accounting for general inflation, we know we will need about $2.8 million to get through next year.”
Eddy said the $2 million carry-over is a simple cushion to make sure bills can be paid, including the county’s $600,000 payroll. Crunching the numbers is her responsibility but how to proceed in light of the figures rests in the commissioners’ laps.