Temporary tax may be permanent

Franklin County commissioners plan to vote Tuesday to make permanent what was a temporary sales tax to build a jail.

“That’s where I’m leaning,” Commissioner Kevin Boyce said Monday.

“I’m still not 100 percent decided,” Commissioner Marilyn Brown said Monday. But she said unless she’s provided with new information at Tuesday’s public hearing that would change her mind, she’s also in favor of making the sales tax permanent.

The third commissioner,

John O’Grady, has publicly supported making the sales tax permanent since county Administrator Kenneth Wilson made that recommendation in late October, and he reiterated his support Monday.

In 2013, the commissioners adopted what they said at the time was a five-year, quarter-cent sales tax to be collected from 2014 through Dec. 31, 2018. It allowed them to pay cash for $220 million in construction projects — a new forensic science center and the first phase of a new jail — and provided tens of millions of dollars for economic-development and social programs.

In Ohio, commissioners can impose a sales tax but voters can fight it.

It would require a referendum, a vote of the public. That referendum would get on the ballot only if enough valid signatures — almost 30,000 — are collected from county voters within 45 days of the commissioners’ vote.

Making the sales tax permanent is necessary, Wilson said, to replace $21 million in annual revenue that Franklin County lost because of state budget changes this year. It also is needed, Wilson said, to maintain the county’s excellent credit rating and to prevent service cuts.

The temporary quartercent sales tax raises about $60 million annually. Commissioners first approved it in 2013 along with a permanent quarter-cent sales tax that pays for day-to-day county government operations.

That second quarter-cent increase was needed, commissioners said, to stabilize county finances after a recession that caused them to use about $100 million in reserves to pay for services. It also helped pay for programs to feed the poor and treat and prevent tuberculosis, plus efforts to find a new home for the Board of Elections and support other programs.

If Tuesday’s vote to make the temporary sales tax permanent is approved, that means that since 2013, commissions have raised the

sales tax one-half of one percent, generating about $120 million per year.

Franklin County’s total sales tax is 7.5 percent, second-highest in Ohio behind Cuyahoga County’s 8 percent. That rate won’t change if the commissioners extend the sales tax.

Tuesday’s public hearing before the vote will be the commissioners’ third on the tax. Commissioners have received little feedback in those meetings.

Boyce wasn’t on the board in 2013 when the temporary tax was approved. But during the 2016 election that put him in office, he told The Dispatch the tax should be allowed to expire.

“It’s important to keep the promise made to Franklin County residents and taxpayers that the dollars generated by the temporary increase be used for their intended purpose and to allow that temporary tax to drop off after the stated 5-year term,” Boyce wrote in a fall 2016 candidate questionnaire. What changed? “What’s changed are the

cuts and the cuts from the state of Ohio that put us in a position to make substantial cuts” in services without more revenue, Boyce said.

Franklin County’s 2018 operating budget is projected to be $452 million. Right now, Franklin County has about $220 million in savings. Commissioners also are expected to approve that budget at Tuesday’s meeting.

In a few years, Boyce said, if the county’s finances remain strong, he might consider rolling back the tax.

Ohio no longer allows sales taxes to be charged for Medicaid services. That change costs Franklin County $21 million annually.

The extra $60 million from making the sales tax permanent is needed, O’Grady and Wilson have said, to offset the loss of that $21 million annually, pay for other programs and keep Franklin County’s top bond ratings. Those ratings help lower the cost for Franklin County to borrow money.