The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

EDITORIAL

Don’t raise the sales tax rate

E-mail this page

2:35 PM Friday, December 11, 2009

Butler County commissioners are expected to resume their discussions on the county’s 2010 budget this week. Let’s be clear about our position regarding one of the ideas they’re considering:

Do not raise the county’s sales tax rate, gentlemen.

Two of the three commissioners, Charles Furmon and Greg Jolivette, publicly acknowledged — in response to a question at a recent chamber event — that they would consider a sales tax rate increase as a last resort in trying to balance the 2010 budget.

By their own admission, commissioners are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. None of the three say they want to raise taxes, but they have not had much success convincing other Republican officeholders to slash their 2010 budgets in order to reconcile an anticipated $6.6 million revenue shortfall next year.

Like many households and local governments in southwest Ohio, Butler County government has been hit hard by the nation’s deep economic recession. When we don’t have money to spend on consumer goods, the county doesn’t collect as much sales tax revenue.

Officials say their alternatives are few:

• Cut the budget and lay off dozens of county employees.

• Declare fiscal emergency and let the state come in and manage the county’s spending.

• Raise the county’s sales tax rate from its current 6.25 percent to 6.5 percent, which would generate as much as $10 million annually in new revenue and solve the county’s budget crisis.

Let’s deal with the obvious first. This is a horrible time to raise taxes on families and businesses.

Critics often observe that a sales tax is a heavier burden for fixed-, middle- and low-income families because it consumes a greater percentage of their income; and more and more families already are being pushed into poverty because of high unemployment rates. A sales tax may seem like a painless way to hike taxes, but those pennies add up over time.

And pennies that go toward a higher sales tax add up to dollars that then cannot be spent in the private sector, thus stifling spending and hurting businesses. You get the picture.

Perhaps most ironic and hard to swallow is that — at a time when national Republicans are pillorying President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders over anticipated tax increases — local Republicans would consider raising taxes because they apparently lack the will or desire to reduce the size of county government. These Republicans must have forgotten the mantra of conservative icon Ronald Reagan — that lower taxes and smaller government should result in economic prosperity. Where is the outraged Tea Party crowd?

Then consider the politics.

The sales tax has been a political football in Butler County for decades. County officials may point to Butler’s 6.25 percent rate as the lowest in the state (tied with three other counties), but the truth is — past county commissions would have loved to raise the tax to the highest possible rate, but the threat of referendum by county Democrats always has held them in check. In a county dominated by Republicans, a referendum threat is the one card that weak local Democrats have been able to play effectively.

Past commissioners have been smart enough to know that voters — given the choice — would repeal a sales tax hike without hesitation.

Butler’s sales tax rate sits at 6.25 percent now, only because county officials shamelessly used the April 2005 shooting of a deputy in Milford Twp. to make a case for a new emergency radio system, giving commissioners the political cover to raise the sales tax rate to 6.5 percent from 6 percent later that year. The tax rate was originally scheduled to drop back to 6 percent in spring 2007, but that did not happen. Why? The main reason was that the cost of the new system was badly underestimated.

Commissioners finally lowered it to 6.25 percent, effective in January 2008, but kept the 0.25 percent addition — they said at the time — in order to pay down the county’s debt and to bolster the county’s reserve fund. Neither happened.

Then there’s the Greg Jolivette situation. Jolivette, facing an investigation by the Ohio Ethics Commission over nepotism allegations, is up for re-election in 2010. Although he’s a well-known incumbent, the Butler County Republican Party did not endorse him for re-election when a crowd of potential replacements — sensing blood in the water — emerged several weeks ago.

At the chamber event in early December, Jolivette said of a possible sales tax rate hike: “I’m open for discussion on this issue, even though it could be very detrimental to my political future.” That’s putting it mildly. Imagine the campaigns that would be waged against a Republican county commissioner who has just raised taxes — by both fellow Republicans in the primary and by Democrats in the general election.

We believe commissioners when they say they do not wish to raise the tax rate. As members of the political party that loudly espouses fiscal conservatism and limited government, they would be considered hypocrites — especially in the midst of this painful recession. And the threat of a referendum always is present, potentially taking away the anticipated revenue and putting commissioners back at square one.

Officeholders across Butler County government should demonstrate that they understand the Republican philosophy of government and exercise the kind of fiscal discipline that most families have already been forced to employ during this difficult recession. Increasing taxes is the easy action to take; instead, county officeholders must learn to live within a budget. If they cannot, we have to question the local Republican Party’s commitment to their own stated convictions. Everyone else should, too.

Share this article

ADD COMMENT

Comments feed

Oh come on! A quarter of a percent sales tax is not going to make that much difference! It comes out to an additional .05 (five cents) on a $20.00 taxable purchase.

**** it up and get over it
7:33 PM, 12/20/2009

REPORT ABUSE

It was just a matter of time before the elected folks pop a bigger tax on us to fix their woes. These people can't act like normal families and cut their budget, instead they have to **** the taxpayers drier than they already have. Then they wonder why business moves out of the USA. The fact we have a slightly smaller rate than those around us gives us a small edge. Money problems, just raise taxes... that's the mentality of ALL elected officials. No wonder we are doomed.

Joetheplumber
11:54 AM, 12/13/2009

REPORT ABUSE

The answer is simple - none of these bozos actually lives in the districts where the levies are proposed, so it's no skin off their nose (or money out of their wallets) if these levies pass. But they occasionally have to come down off their high horses to come here to Butler County and they might stop in a shop & buy something, so of course they don't want to pay more for that!

Instead of endorsing levies maybe they should try to hire writers who actually know how to write without errors.

HHS grad
11:39 AM, 12/13/2009

REPORT ABUSE

Good question Mr. Presta. Why does the Journal always endorse every levy by the school board or tax by council? You mention in this article that you are against more tax burdens on the people, yet, you support every tax hike to come down the pike in this town. Why is this different?

What A City!
9:16 AM, 12/13/2009

REPORT ABUSE

Finally, a Middletown Journal editorial with which I can agree!

What I cannot understand is why the Journal does not apply the same logic to the Middletown City Council and the Middletown Board of Education. Instead, The Journal has always been in favor of every tax ever offered to be imposed on the citizens of Middletown.

Mike_Presta
3:33 AM, 12/13/2009

REPORT ABUSE

We welcome your comments. Please remember this is a public forum and behave appropriately. Your comments must conform to our visitor's agreement.