The Columbiana County Board of Elections board reorganizes for 2025, welcoming new board members Charley Kidder of Lisbon and Greg Smith of Salem, who were sworn in Wednesday by county Municipal Court Judge Kelly Linger before the meeting. Seated from left are board Vice Chair Patty Colian and Chairman David Johnson, and standing from left, Administrative Assistant Niki Wilkinson, Charley Kidder, Director Kim Fusco, Judge Kelly Linger and Greg Smith. (Photo by Mary Ann Greier)

LISBON — The language for Columbiana County’s 1% sales tax renewal on the May 6 ballot will include the word renewal in the title, along with the words “continuation of an existing sales and use tax.”

“Hopefully that will help,” county Commissioner Mike Halleck said.

Halleck attended the county Board of Elections board meeting Wednesday afternoon and told the board members and election personnel that he appreciated the ballot language.

The word renewal wasn’t used for the title in the ballot language when the 1% sales tax failed miserably in November. The ballot language then also didn’t indicate the sales tax was the continuation of an existing sales and use tax.

Instead, the ballot language in the fall said it was 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.

The commissioners blamed the ballot language for the loss and Halleck said he spoke to people after the election and a lot of it was “misinterpretation.” People thought it was a new tax and voted it down.

The ballot language this time reads: “The Board of County Commissioners of Columbiana County proposes the continuation of an existing sales and use tax of one percent (1%) for the purpose of providing general revenue for the county, for a period of 5 years, commencing on Jan. 1, 2026. Shall the resolution of the Columbiana County Commissioners proposing a continuation of an existing one percent (1%) sales and use tax, be approved?”

“We went to bat on the ballot language,” county Board of Elections board Chairman David Johnson said, noting there were discussions with the Secretary of State’s Office, stressing “people of the county should know it’s a renewal,” referring to the language.

He said the elections office is currently under a wage freeze and will “make do with what we have.”

Johnson also said they’re all in favor of the passage of the tax renewal, which represents what he described as a huge part of the operations of county government. Both he and new board member Charley Kidder of Lisbon pledged the support of both the Republican and Democrat parties in the county for the sales tax renewal. Johnson is chairman of the county Republican Party and Kidder is chairman of the county Democrat party.

In talking about the sales tax, Halleck said 30 percent of the money that comes into the county from the 1% sale tax comes from outside the county, advising a check of the parking lot at the Calcutta Walmart will reveal license plates from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. At the Salem Walmart, people from Mahoning County shop there.

He also stressed that the sales tax does not affect anyone’s property tax. He said the revaluation of properties that occurred and affected last year’s property tax bills may have created a problem for the 1% sales tax last fall.

According to Halleck, 55 percent of the county’s revenue is coming from the 1% sales tax, which generates $14 million per year for the general fund. The general fund is used to fund all the operations in the courthouse, all the courts, the prosecutor, the jail, the sheriff, treasurer, auditor, recorder and commissioners, along with municipal court, the board of elections and the title department.

He said the county is the lowest per capita in terms of budget in the state of Ohio that he could find. Most other counties the size of Columbiana County have a budget of $30 million and have more personnel in the commissioners’ office while Columbiana County’s 2025 appropriations were a little over $23 million, with just two clerks and the three county commissioners in the commissioners’ office.

Halleck said it costs about $2 million a month to operate the county government. He encourage everyone to speak out for the sales tax and “hopefully we’ll have a positive outcome in May.”

The board for the Board of Elections reorganized for the year, welcoming new board members Kidder and Greg Smith of Salem, a Republican, who were both sworn in by Columbiana County Municipal Court Judge Kelly Linger prior to the meeting. After the meeting, she also swore in the four clerks.

Democrat Kim Fusco was reappointed as director and Republican Niki Wilkinson was reappointed administrative assistant, with Johnson re-elected chairman and Democrat Patty Colian re-elected vice chair. Linger also administered the oath of office for Fusco and Wilkinson.

The board approved amending the meeting agenda to include Halleck.

In other business, the board approved the bills for February, which totaled $40,605. Fusco said the month didn’t include any expenses left over from the November election.

She reported some good news in the form of a $135,223 grant from the Secretary of State’s Office to use for election expense in May, explaining that because the state has a state bond issue on the ballot, the state is covering the cost of what’s considered a special primary. The bond issue allows the state to sell bonds to fund infrastructure projects throughout the state and does not increase taxes. The bond issue is put on the ballot every 10 years and was originally approved by voters in 1987.

Fusco and Wilkinson also made clear, after discussions with the Secretary of State’s Office and the county prosecutor’s office, that only contested races will appear on the ballot. The countywide Republican ballot will include one county Municipal Court judge race that’s contested, with the other judgeship not appearing on the ballot since its an uncontested race with just one candidate. The Republican ballot in Salem will include the contested judge race along with a contested race for Salem City Council at Large, which has four candidates for three open spots for the Republican Party nomination. The lone Democrat candidate for council at large won’t appear on the ballot since there’s no partisan race. There will be no Democrat partisan ballot anywhere in the county since there are no contest Democrat races.

The uncontested candidates for Salem city council president and treasurer also will not appear on the Republican ballot in Salem.

mgreier@mojonews.com