Would you pay more? Mahoning officials want new quarter-percent sales tax for roads

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County commissioners intend to put a new sales tax levy for road maintenance up for a vote.

Commissioners during their regular Thursday meeting set two public hearings on a newly proposed, five-year quarter-percent sales tax, expected to generate about $9 million annually for maintenance of roads and some bridges, as well as other infrastructure projects.

The measure would appear on the Nov. 2 general election ballot. If passed, county consumers would be taxed an extra 25 cents on every $100 spent in the county.

The tax would only be in effect for five years — during which it's expected to generate a total $45 million — and won't be put up for a renewal, said Audrey Tillis, commissioners' executive director.

"The townships and county engineer have requested they consider [a tax referendum] so residents can make a decision whether this is a priority for them or not," Tillis said.

Two public hearings have been set on the issue: The first at 5:30 p.m. July 19 at Kenneth F. McMahon Hall on the Mill Creek MetroParks Farm, 7574 Columbiana-Canfield Road, Canfield; and the second at 11 a.m. July 22 in the commissioners' hearing room in the basement of the Mahoning County Courthouse, 120 Market St., Youngstown.

Tillis said county Engineer Pat Ginnetti worked with township officials on a spending plan outlining the roads slated for renovation, but that plan can't be codified under legal rules.

Ginnetti could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

The prospect of new spending leeway to fix township roads was welcome news to Jason Loree, administrator of highly traveled Boardman Township, which struggles to keep up with its 144 miles of roadway each year. Some of those roads haven't been touched since they were first laid, he said.

The township can attend to about three or four miles each year, but with rising material costs, "you'll never catch up at that rate," Loree said.

He said fixing a "very small," one-mile portion of Karago Avenue, which services lots of delivery trucks, is expected to cost $1 million alone due to the amount of resurfacing it would require.

"If we get additional funding in the county, that'll go a long way to get these roads back up," he said. "We desperately need to do more. To get all the roads done in Boardman Township doing three miles a year — we won't get there in my tenure.

"If Boardman Township gets an additional shot in the arm for funding, it would help our neighborhood roads drastically," Loree said, adding he'd like to go from fixing three miles each year to 10 miles.

Mahoning County is responsible for about 485 miles of roadway and about 300 bridges, five of which have been identified as the most-traveled, structurally deficient bridges in the 13th and 6th U.S. congressional districts, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association's most recent report.

Those bridges are located at:

• South Avenue over Youngstown & Southern railroad, which was built in 1957 and is crossed about 9,100 times daily
• Four Mile Run Road over Four Mile Run, which was built in 1931 and is crossed about 6,000 times daily
• Raccoon Road over Indian Run Creek, which was built in 1957 and is crossed about 4,300 times daily
• North Lima Road over Yellow Creek, which was built in 1940 and is crossed about 4,200 times daily
• And Hopkins Road over Andersons Run, which was built in 1938 and is crossed nearly 3,300 times daily

This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 3:52 AM with the headline "Would you pay more? Mahoning officials want new quarter-percent sales tax for roads."