LISBON — Columbiana County voters turned down a request to renew the 1 percent sales tax for another five years by a very wide margin and again said no to a tax to support the county park district.

“Very disappointed. I don’t think people understand the gravity of what that loss can mean,” Commissioner Mike Halleck said Tuesday night regarding the sales tax.

According to complete, but unofficial results from the Columbiana County Board of Elections, voters adamantly slapped down the 1 percent sales tax renewal with 33,666 votes or 73.86 percent percent against the tax and just 11,912 votes or 26.14 percent in favor.

Halleck characterized the huge loss as a misunderstanding because of the ballot language for the tax.

“I think we need to simplify the language so that people understand it’s a renewal,” he said. “It’s the same tax the county has been operating on for nearly 30 years.”

Halleck said “we obviously need to do a better job of explaining that and we need to put it on the ballot again.”

The commissioners have two more opportunities to place the 1 percent sales tax on the ballot for renewal next year, since the current 1 percent sales tax doesn’t expire until Dec. 31, 2025.

The ballot language clearly played a part in the defeat. A reader of the Columbiana County Newspapers commented on the election story about the 1 percent sales tax renewal last month, asking why it didn’t say renewal on the ballot. A check of a sample ballot and the language for the sales tax issue showed that it did not say “renewal.” By then, the ballots had already been printed and could not be changed, but commissioners tried to stress that it was in fact a renewal of a sales tax already in place.

The ballot said, “The Board of County Commissioners of Columbiana County proposes to levy a sales and use tax in the amount of 1 percent for the purpose of providing additional general revenue for Columbiana County and paying the expenses of administering the levy for a period of five years. Shall the resolution of the Columbiana County commissioners proposing a 1 percent sales and use tax be approved?”

When contacted about the ballot language, Columbiana County Board of Elections Director Kim Fusco explained that the language in the last two elections that included the sales tax also didn’t say renewal.

She said election office personnel send a copy of the prior ballot language, since it is a renewal, and a copy of the resolution approved by the taxing authority, in this case the commissioners, to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office. The Ohio Secretary of State’s office determined the wording and sent the ballot language back to the county Board of Elections office for placement on the ballot.

The commissioners’ resolution signed by all three commissioners did say that the resolution was for the purpose of providing additional general revenue for Columbiana County, but also included a statement noting that this resolution was to place a continuation of a county 1 percent sales and use tax on the ballot. Near the end of the resolution, a statement said “this resolution is for continuation of an existing sales and use tax levy of 1 percent.”

The wording on previous ballot issues from Nov. 5, 2019 and May 5, 2015 both spelled that out, saying: “The Board of County Commissioners of Columbiana County proposes the continuation of an existing sales and use tax of 1 percent for the purpose of providing general revenue for the county for a period of five years.”

The sales tax, both the 1 percent and the permanent half percent, represents 70 percent of the revenue that comes into the county general fund, which pays for most of the county operations, including the courts, sheriff and other offices in the courthouse such as the commissioners, auditor, recorder, treasurer and clerk of courts, along with the Board of Elections and Veterans Services.

Last year, the 1 percent sales tax receipts totaled $14,468,375 and the half percent sales tax receipts totaled $7,234,684 for a total of more than $21.7 million. The general fund revenues totaled $28.1 million last year.

So far this year, the revenue for the 1 percent sales tax totals $11,896,948 through October. Added with the half percent of $5,948,446 so far through October, the total stands at $17,845,394 with three months to go.

The official certificate of estimated resources for 2025 was estimated at $24.6 million for the county general fund next year.

Parks levy defeat

Voters also said no again to the county park district, defeating the new .10-mill, five-year tax levy requested with 28,537 votes or 62.73 percent against it and 16,956 votes or 37.27 percent in favor of the levy, according to complete, but unofficial results.

This was the park board’s fourth attempt to secure funding to care for the parks and trails, but this time the request was smaller, which board members hoped the residents would support.

If approved, the countywide levy would have generated $258,000 per year, costing the owner of a home valued at $100,000 a total of $3.50 per year, or just $1.75 per half, according to the county Auditor’s Office. The most recent levy denied by voters in March was for .35 mills and would have generated $890,000 per year.

When contacted by phone, park board chairman Eileen Dray-Bardon said “we’re going to have to go to a bare minimum maintenance schedule.”

She started out by saying the board members talked about options for what they could do if the levy didn’t pass. She noted that the park board asked the county commissioners to provide funding if the levy didn’t pass, but when told about the large sales tax loss at the polls, she said she doubted that would happen.

For now, she said the park district can bump along through 2025, but then they’ll have very little money left to operate.

“There’s going to have to be significant changes to the maintenance of all the parks,” she said.

When asked why this keeps happening, Dray-Bardon said from comments they’ve heard, “people are just sick of taxes.”

She said the park district can’t go on the ballot in 2025 due to the cost, saying they can’t afford it.

“We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do,” she said.

The park district board meets at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 12 at the park office on Maple Street, Lisbon.

Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the Little Beaver Creek Greenway Trail maintained by the park district, covering 15 miles of paved trail stretching from Washingtonville, through Leetonia and stretching through Lisbon.

The district also operates Scenic Vista Park which covers 250-plus acres in Center Township and includes an 18-hole disc golf course, hiking trails and pavilion, Hellbender Bluff Park covering 752 acres in Madison Township and the historical Ohio Supreme Court meeting site marker on state Route 7 in Fairfield Township.

The only definite money the park district receives comes from $15,000 received annually from the Local Government Fund. The district does not receive any money from the county general fund from commissioners, although commissioners have helped at times with American Rescue Plan Act funds for specific projects. Several years ago, the park district board acquired oil and gas lease money, but that money is dwindling. The district also relies upon grant funding and donations, with assistance coming from the Friends of the Park.

mgreier@mojonews.com