Sales tax vote turned down Board rejects petition for November ballot

Lorain County voters will not get a chance to vote on the sales tax increase imposed by the Lorain County Commission at the end of 2016.

The Lorain County Elections Board on Aug. 18 rejected a citizen petition to put the .025 percent sales tax increase on the November ballot for a countywide vote.

Elections board members Marilyn Jacobcik, a Republican, and Thomas Smith, a Democrat, voted to turn down the citizens’ request.

Board member Helen Hurst, a Republican, voted in favor of the countywide vote. Board member Anthony Giardini, a Democrat, did not attend the meeting.

Before the board’s roll call vote, Smith cited Ohio law and a legal opinion from Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Gerald Innes, who recommended the board turn down the petitions for a county vote.

“I’m not going to sit here as a board member and vote to change the law when it’s clear, obvious and I have a legal opinion telling me to reject the petition,” Smith said.

He said he respects the petition campaign supported by attorney Gerald Phillips, who has the option to take his case to the Ohio Supreme Court in hopes of getting the issue up for a popular vote.

“I have a deep respect for the rights of the people,” Hurst said. “Therefore, I will vote in favor of the petitioners.”

Before the deciding vote, Jacobcik said she has struggled over the issue more than any other that came before the board.

“I do support the right, erring on the side of access to the ballot,” she said. “I also struggle with the idea that we don’t get to choose the laws that we uphold.”

Ohio laws may seem arbitrary or disagreeable, Jacobcik said, but she said she is sworn to uphold the law as a board member.

She also cited Ohio case law and opinions from the offices of the Ohio Attorney General and Ohio Secretary of State, which sided against the petition.

“I do believe I have to vote against placing it on the ballot,” Jacobcik said.

Whatever the outcome of the board vote, she predicted the case of the residents’ petitions will end up in court.

Before the board of elections vote, the board members heard from Phillips and sales tax ballot advocates Jeff Baxter of Elyria, Curtis Weems of Avon Lake and Cliff Rivenbank of Sheffield Lake.

They argued their case, citing the history of the issue starting with the election results of November 2016 and the subsequent actions.

In November 2016, county voters trounced a proposed continuing sales tax increase for money for the county general fund and for public transit.

The next month, Lorain County Commissioners Ted Kalo and Lori Kokoski voted to increase the sales tax rate by 0.25 percent, bring the county’s sales tax to 6.75 percent. Commissioner Matt Lundy voted against the increase, but noted the county needs the money.

Baxter questioned the commissioners’ timing in December last year.

As a businessman, Weems said he could find no financial records to support a sales tax increase.

The process of collecting signatures and talking to voters was enjoyable, Rivenbank said.

“The sad part about it was the apathy,” he said. “A lot of people don’t care anymore. They don’t choose to vote.

“Young people say, ‘I don’t even care because they’re going to do whatever they want.’”

Phillips submitted a 15-page legal memorandum and argued at least eight points of law that he claimed supported a decision to put the sales tax increase up for a public vote.

In other business, the board of elections voted to reject petitions from two candidates seeking to run for school boards.

The board members voted to reject the petitions of Michael A. Post, who was running for the Clearview school board, and Marco Jacinto, who was running for the Lorain school board.

Both had invalid petitions because some of the required paperwork was not signed by the respective candidates.

The lack of signatures invalidated some of their petitions, so neither had enough signatures to appear on the ballot, according to the ruling by the elections board.

The Lorain County Elections Board on Aug. 18 rejected a citizen petition to put the .025 percent sales tax increase on the November ballot for a countywide vote.