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County Sales Tax Issue one Questions and Answers LEG

From the Lancaster Eagle Gazette

Posted February 6, 2005 6:09 PM.

Officials answer issue 1 questions (part 1)

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Q: How many county employees will be laid off if the levy fails?
A: Exact numbers aren’t known, said Commissioner Judy Shupe, because some departments are waiting to turn in their 2005 budgets until after the election.
Officials originally estimated 130 employees would be laid off — 100 from the county, 30 from the sheriff’s office. That number represents $5 million worth of budget cuts, said Fairfield County Treasurer Jon Slater Jr.

Q: What are some factors that might change those numbers?
A: Each department head determines how many employees to lay off in their department, Slater said. It’s up to each elected official to decide whether to cut employees or to find other ways to reduce their budgets.
Some departments have outside funds that could be used to help pay employees’ salaries, while other departments could work with other county agencies to share a workload and save money, he said.

Q: What steps have county agencies taken to save money?
A: From 2003 to 2004, general fund expenditures were reduced by nearly $1.3 million, Shupe said. That’s the result of an across-the-board 20 percent budget reduction. The county commissioners enacted a hiring freeze in January 2004 that has been in place ever since.
In September, the commissioners asked Job & Family Services Human Relations and Public Relations Director Aundrea Cordle to serve double duty at JFS and as County HR Director after the departure of County Human Resources Director Anita Hager, whose job was eliminated.
The commissioners planned to save the money originally spent on Hager’s salary.
“This is not something that happened overnight,” Shupe said. “We have cut back. We have not replaced people who left.”

Posted February 6, 2005 6:11 PM.

Officials answer issue 1 questions (part 2)

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Q: What happens if agencies demand funding of their budgets as protected by Ohio law?
A: By state law, veterans’ services, courts and the prosecuting attorney can mandate their budgets, Shupe said. The state requires those departments be funded to the extent they wish. Shupe isn’t sure which departments, if any, will mandate; that decision will be made following the election.
“The more departments mandate, the less other departments get,” she said. “The mandates most definitely are going to affect the level of services of the remaining departments.”
The commissioners’ hands are tied if any of the three mandate budgets, Shupe said: by law, they are not allowed to deny funding to those three departments.

Q: If the levy passes, will department heads remove the hiring and pay raise freeze?
A: The commissioners don’t control the department heads. Shupe said: the decision to grant raises and hire more people is made by the individual department head.
Slater said he will lift the hiring freeze on his department, as will Phalen.

Q: Where will the jail be built?
A: Preliminary plans for the jail indicate it will be built at the Liberty Center, a 66-acre complex on West Fair Avenue, but those plans are “not written in stone,” Shupe said.
No matter where the jail goes, Shupe said the county will build it on land the county already owns.
“We do have the space available,” she said. “Most definitely, we won’t have to purchase land.”

Q:. Are there other options for the jail other than building at the Liberty Center?
A: There are a few options instead of the Liberty Center location: the existing jail on Main Street could be torn down and a jail built in its place, or the new jail could be built where the West Wheeling Street jail stands now, said Shupe.
Those last two options aren’t necessarily the best ones, Shupe said. If a new jail were built on Main Street, space would be a big issue — there just isn’t any. Parking is a problem, and the prisoners don’t have an outdoor recreation area.
“The cost of renovating the existing jail would be more costly than starting from scratch,” Shupe said.
Parking would be an issue, too, at the West Wheeling Street facility, Shupe continued. That location is in a floodplain, and the jail, once a Kroger store, was built atop a paved-over landfill.
Voids in the landfill cause the pavement to buckle, which in turn causes the jail structure to settle and sink, making cracks in the walls. A parking garage is an option, but the expense might outweigh the benefits.

Q: What will the jail look like?
A: The jail will have 250 beds, Phalen said, and will house maximum- and minimum-security prisoners. There will be enough beds left over to rent space to other counties, he said.

Q: What offices will be incorporated with the new jail?
A: The 911 call center will be located at the jail, Phalen said, as will the Fairfield County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

Q: When will it be built?
A: Phalen anticipates the jail will be built in as little as 18 months, but Shupe said it will probably be two or three years until plans are completed and construction is begun.

Q: What will happen to the old jails?
A: The buildings on West Wheeling and East Main streets likely will be sold, Commissioner Jon Myers said. The county would be responsible for the empty buildings until sold.

Q: How many prisoners do the old facilities hold?
A: The maximum security jail on East Main Street was built to hold around 50 prisoners, Phalen said. The state standards dictate the jail’s capacity is 37 inmates; however, Phalen said, anywhere from 70 to 90 prisoners are typically housed daily. The minimum security jail on West Wheeling Street holds 30 to 40 prisoners.

Q: How many prisoners are housed outside the county?
A: Twenty prisoners per day are housed elsewhere in Ohio, Phalen said.


Posted February 6, 2005 6:12 PM.

Officials answer issue 1 questions (part 3)

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Q: How much sales tax revenue is collected annually by the county?
A: The sales tax for Fairfield County is set at 6.75 percent, Shupe said, but 6 percent of that goes directly to the state. The remaining .75 percent brought in $10,250,052 in 2004.
Q: Where does that money go?
A: Sales tax revenue goes into the general fund, Shupe said.

Q: How much money does the county spend each year?
A: The county’s general fund expenditures were nearly $30.5 million in 2003, Slater said. In 2004, that number was trimmed to just over $29.1 million. Sales tax, license fees, interest, rent, service charges, property taxes and fines contribute revenue to the general fund.

Q: If the sales tax levy passes, when will the county begin to collect money?
A: The money will begin to be collected in July, Shupe said. Sales tax revenue goes to the state first. After the state’s and county’s amounts are separated, the county’s amount is returned to the auditor’s office. The county should receive revenue beginning in September, she said.

Q: Why can’t the commissioners raise the conveyance fee?
A: The conveyance fee is an amount of money paid when someone purchases real estate in Fairfield County. Right now, the fee is set at $1, Myers said, but could be raised up to $4 (the state maximum).
If the commissioners raised the conveyance fee to $3, that would generate $1.2 million annually and “would have to go for general fund relief and not be designated for any one item,” Myers said.

Q: What will be done with the money between collection time and construction of the jail?
A: The money will be set aside and saved until the jail is built, Myers said.

Q: Where does the $7 million in revenues go?
A: Ballot language dictates that $1,250,000 will be set aside for construction and equipping the new jail; $3,266,000 is earmarked for operation and maintenance of the jail; and $1,900,900 will be used to improve the 911 call center. The leftover money will be used to pay off the county’s share of the juvenile detention center debt, which Shupe said is now $800,000 per year.
The money the county spends to operate the existing jails is $3.1 million per year, Shupe said. That money, along with the county’s annual $860,000 for upkeep of the 911 center, will go back into the general fund as general fund relief.

Q: How much does it cost to house a prisoner in the county per day?
A: It costs $65 per prisoner per day, Phalen said. That amount accounts for personnel, food, medical treatment, electricity and water expenses.

Q: How much does it cost to house a prisoner out of the county per day?
A: The cost to house a prisoner outside the county is $60 per prisoner per day, Phalen said. Last year, the county spent $300,000 to house prisoners in other counties. The cost in staff salaries, vehicle maintenance and gasoline to transport the prisoners was $27,300.

Q: Why can’t we just send all the prisoners out of the county?
A: “Other jails won’t take them if they have medical issues, if they’re violent or if they’re suicidal,” Phalen said.
Travel distances vary, too, because Phalen can’t always send prisoners to the same jails, he said.
“Many times, we have to send them a considerable distance ... because the cities that house prisoners for us run out of space,” he said.
Sending every prisoner to another county “would be very hard to operate,” Phalen said, because many of the prisoners are short-term and are needed immediately for court appearances. Being housed in another county would make it difficult for the prisoners’ family and attorney to visit, as well as the county investigators, he said.
“We would be going continually in transport trying to facilitate that,” he said.

Q: Is this a permanent sales tax or can it be rescinded?
A: The sales tax is a five-year continuing levy, said Fairfield County Deputy Chief Auditor Ed Laramee.
“It doesn’t have an expiration,” he said. “It’s like a property tax passed on a continuing basis.”
The money will go into a special fund, Laramee said, pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Section 5739.026. In order to follow the Revised Code, the ballot language “had to be very specific where those dollars would go in the first five years,” he said. If the sales tax passes, the amount of money earmarked for safety services must stay the same for five years.

Q: What happens after five years?
A: “Say, 10 years out, maybe this is bringing in $8 million because we grow as a county,” Laramee said. “It’s rightful to ask, ‘Where is that going to go?’ It can only go for the purposes in this issue; therefore, the allocations within those issues could change over time.”
For example, if the 911 call center needed more money, money would be taken away from the jail construction fund or the jail operation budget in order to raise the 911 center’s budget.
Even after five years, the money will never just go into the general fund, Laramee said.
“For the life of this issue, it can only go for the purposes established,” he said. “The only way that anyone — I don’t care who they are — can change that is, they have to go to court and stipulate that (the monies) are no longer needed for the purpose for which they were intended.”

Q: What happens after the jail is paid for?
A: Construction of the jail will cost about $12 million, Phalen said, and will be financed through bonds.
When the planning period begins, Laramee said, bonds will be sold to finance it. The jail will be paid off 28 years after the first bond is sold, he said. Once the jail is paid off, the money raised by the sales tax levy would go toward the other expenses dictated in the ballot language.

Q: How is a raise in sales tax justifiable to someone on a fixed income?
A: “There’s no fair tax for someone (on a fixed income),” Myers said. “This would be the least intrusive tax for someone like that.”

Ballot Language

Posted February 7, 2005 10:42 AM.

Read the resolution and ballot language for the Feb. 8 special election

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Whereas, revenues to Fairfield County have significantly decreased between the years 2001 and 2004; and
Whereas, various expenses of Fairfield County have dramatically increased between the years 2001 and 2004; and
Whereas, Ohio Revised Code Section 5739.026 permits Fairfield County, Ohio, to levy and collect an additional sales tax of one half of one percent upon every retail sale made in Fairfield County, Ohio; and
Whereas, Ohio Revised Code Section 5741.023 permits Fairfield County, Ohio, to levy and collect an additional use tax of one half of one percent upon the storage, use or other consumption of motor vehicles, watercraft and outboard motors in Fairfield County, Ohio; and
Whereas, Fairfield County, Ohio, is in need of additional revenues; and
Whereas, Fairfield County, Ohio, desires to increase said retail sales and use taxes by one half of one percent to the effective rate of seven and one-quarter percent for the purpose of providing additional revenues for the County in support of juvenile and adult criminal and administrative justive services in Fairfield County, Ohio, and to pay the expense of administering such levy,

Now therefore, be it resolved by the Board of Commissioners of Fairfield County, Ohio:

Section 1: That a sales and use tax proposal be placed on the ballot for special election to be conducted February 8, 2005, whereby an additional one-half percent sales and use tax be imposed beginning July 1, 2005, for a continuing period of time in order:
A. To provide additional revenue for the operating expenses of an improved 911 dispatch system and related services for the county pursuant to section 5739.026(A)(6). $1,900,000 of the total revenues collected shall be distributed to a special fund of the county during year one and $2,000,000 of the total revenues collected shall be distributed to a special fund of the county during years two through five.
B. To provide additional revenue for the construction and equipping of a public safety facility to house a county adult detention center, the sheriff’s administrative offices, a 911 communications and dispatch operations center and an emergency management administration and operations center pursuant to section 5739.026(A)(5) and to pay principal, interest premium and other costs associated with the issuance of bonds or notes in anticipation of bonds issued pursuant to Chapter 133 of the Ohio Revised Code. $1,250,000 of the total revenues collected shall be distributed to a special fund of the county during years one through five.
C. To provide additional revenue for the operation and maintenance of the county’s adult detention facilities pursuant to section 5739.026(A)(7). $3,266,000 of the total revenues collected shall be distributed to a special fund of the county during year one and any increase in the allocation to the special fund from the total revenues collected during years two through five shall be capped at 4 percent annually.
D. To provide additional revenue for Fairfield County’s share of operating expenses, including the county’s share of debt service requirements pursuant to section 5739.026(A)(7) of the existing multi-county juvenile detention facility. All revenues collected in excess of the amounts required to fund items A through C above shall be used for this purpose.

Section 2: That the clerk is hereby instructed to deliver this resolution to the Fairfield County Board of Elections in a timely manner in order that this question shall appear upon the ballot of a special election to be conducted on February 8, 2005.


Here is the ballot language that voters will see Tuesday:

The Board of County Commissioners of Fairfield County proposes an increase in the sales and use tax in the amount of one-half percent for the purpose of funding the operation expenses of an improved 911 system; construction and equipping a public safety facility; operation and maintenance of the adult detention facility; and county’s share of operating expenses of the existing multi-county juvenile detention facility for a continuing period of time.

Shall the resolution of the Fairfield County Commissioners proposing a one-half percent sales and use tax increase be approved?

Opinon Editorial LEG

Opinon of the Editorial Staff of the Lancaster Eagle Gazette

Issue 1 is clouded in uncertainty




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E D I T O R I A L
Taxpayer dollars must be spent wisely or not at all. Those words were delivered by President George W. Bush during his State of the Union speech Wednesday.

It's a message all officials hoping to pass tax increases this year should take to heart.

At least half a dozen levies -- school, income, etc. -- are headed for the ballot in May.

But the first one of the year will be on Tuesday's ballot. Issue 1 is a request to increase the sales tax .50 percent from 6.75 percent to 7.25 percent.

Issue 1 is billed as a safety services levy by some officials. The campaign messages promote the responsibilities and duties of the sheriff's office.

Fairfield County officials are banking on this levy generating about $7 million of additional revenues during the first year. The amount collected each year after may increase or decrease. The money collected from this permanent tax will roll into the general fund after five years -- unless county officials designate its use for something else.

The money would go toward paying for a new jail, training, hiring, and 911 and emergency management centers. This will allow general fund money now used to support the sheriff's office to be used elsewhere. And if the levy fails Tuesday, an estimated 130 employees may lose their jobs.

Sounds simple enough.

Yet, there are several issues that bother us about the county's latest request.

Among them -- vague or inconsistent answers, little research, and the reluctance to try other revenue-generating options first. Raising the conveyance fee from $1 to $3 would generate an additional $1.2 million. The state limit is $4, and two neighboring counties already charge that amount.

Then there is the issue of what residents have not been told.

Commissioners will not guarantee freezes on hiring and pay raises will remain in effect. Commissioners maintain those decisions are made by each elected official. At least two elected officials plan to lift the freeze on hiring and pay raises.

Finally, there are the numerous "yet to be determined" answers to questions.

All of these issues make us wonder about the due diligence given to this issue and what else can be done besides raising sales taxes.

Officials must make sure every penny is accounted for, issue researched, and alternative tried before asking taxpayers to pay more -- whether it's income, property or sales taxes.

Any request for tax dollars must be as transparent as a freshly cleaned window. There should be no doubts about what the money will be used for, could be used for or how it will be used.

We've found this to be anything but the case with Issue 1. Residents deserve better.

In order to get it, we encourage them to vote against the sales tax levy Tuesday.

Originally published Monday, February 7, 2005

Issue One

Lancaster Eagle Gazette
Editorial Opinion Link