Lorain County Commissioners propose 0.25 percent sales tax hike to benefit Sheriff's Office (UPDATED)

A current 0.25 percent sales tax for Lorain County Jail operations was passed in 1994. Inaccurate information was provided by the Board of Commissioners for the first version of this story. Lorain County voters will be asked later this year to support a 0.25 percent sales tax increase the Board of Commissioners intends to put on the November ballot to support the operations of the Lorain County Sheriff's Office. The estimated $13 million the sales tax will raise annually would reduce the strain the sheriff's $30 million annual budget puts on the county general fund, which also pays for the operation of other county offices. That's important, officials said, because the county is looking at a deficit spending situation in 2026 if additional revenue streams aren't found before before then. The all-Republican, three-member board voted unanimously Friday to start the process and hold two required public hearings in the next two weeks — one at 4:30 p.m. June 17 and one at 10:30 a.m. June 20. The issue would be placed on the Nov. 5 ballot. Consumers in Lorain County currently pay 6.5 percent, or 6.5 cents on every dollar, for retail purchases subject to sales tax. Chief Deputy Tanya Czack, Sheriff Jack Hall's second-in-command, told the board that the tax increase will help "stabilize long-term funding" and is "prioritizing public safety" in Lorain County. Czack said she has been going through the sheriff's $30.3 million-plus 2025 budget line-by-line to ensure no wasteful spending. Of that $30.4 million, more than $13.6 million came from a 0.25 percent sales tax that has been on the books since 1994, money dedicated to Lorain County Jail operations. The remaining $16.7 million in Hall's budget comes from the county general fund, Czack said. The Sheriff's Office projects a 2026 budget of $32.5 million, the increase due to contractual obligations, she said. The proposed sales tax would raise an estimated $13 million and take that burden off the general fund permanently, Czack said. Lorain County's 2025 budget is $86.7 million. Its 2024 budget was $84.4 million. The 2026 budget hasn't been announced, and it wasn't disclosed Friday how large a deficit is expected in 2026. County Budget Director KC Saunders didn't respond to a message seeking comment. Over the last four-plus years, Lorain County reaped the benefit of a significant amount of federal funding during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving $60 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. That money is nearly all gone, Commissioner Jeff Riddell said Friday. Commissioners back tax increase Commissioner David Moore said the previous board of commissioners, made up of Democrats Lori Kokoski, Matt Lundy and Sharon Sweda, repealed a 0.25 percent sales tax two weeks before he took office in 2020. Kokoski and Commissioner Ted Kalo had voted in 2016 to impose the tax, with Lundy voting against doing so. Its effect was to save the jobs of deputies and assistant prosecutors who might have been laid off without it. In early 2021, then-Sheriff Phil Stammitti unsuccessfully petitioned Moore, Lundy and former Commissioner Michelle Hung, a Republican, to reinstate the 0.25 percent sales tax. Now, more than five years after bashing the three Democrats for their decision, Moore called the repeal "the best thing that ever happened to this county." The repeal created a situation where the county was allowed to use ARPA dollars to replace lost revenue. That meant "we were able to take a lot of handcuffs off the Board of Commissioners and use that reduction as lost revenue and that is how we've been moving forward," Moore said. The county is now "at the hangover stage" with no ARPA dollars left, he said, borrowing a phrase from Riddell. "We've been working with our budgets for the past year" — and though no longer holding public budget hearings or discussions — "we constantly are reevaluating them. What we're projecting out is we are now in a deficit mode for 2026," Moore said. The state expects a preliminary 2026 budget from the county by the end of July, Moore said, one that will be based almost entirely on revenue projections and not actual revenue. Moore and Riddell promised that voters would get both the public hearings and an education on the need for the sales tax increase in the coming months. Moore said he is "an anti-tax guy, but if I know where the money's going, then I can make a decision as a voter on whether to support that organization, and with the great work that's going on at the county Sheriff's Office, I think we have a nice time to reevaluate how this county can move forward," he said. Riddell said voters "wisely" passed the 0.25 percent sales tax to support the jail in the 1970s but when the size of the jail grew in the 1990s, there was no corresponding increase in revenue. That means over the years the Sheriff's Office competed with other county departments for general fund dollars, "and sometimes the sheriff's department won and sometimes the sheriff's department didn't," he said. "The desire of this Board of Commissioners is to establish permanent funding for the jail that does not have to compete with other good projects," he said. Commissioner Marty Gallagher said Lorain County is the ninth-largest county in the state with one of the lowest sales tax rates. And with a reduction in federal and state tax dollars coming to the county from Columbus and Washington, D.C., both of which are controlled by Republicans, "we're having to do more with less" he said. "We are at a great point were we do need to something to help our safety forces," Gallagher said, "and unfortunately it's not something easy for all of us to look at." There remains the issue of finding millions of dollars to build a new Lorain County Jail to replace the nearly 50-year-old facility that was last updated in 1998. Voters shouldn't expect to see any kind of funding for that on the November ballot, Moore said. "We've run out of time" and are still in discussions and debates, he said. Brian Baker, a Brownhelm Township resident and Democrat who lost a campaign for commissioner last year against Moore, told the board it needs to give voters all the information it can. That includes budget numbers, how deep the county will be into deficit spending and why the sales tax increase is needed, he said. Baker also noted it is the second tax increase the Board of Commissioners has proposed this year, having passed a $5 vehicle registration fee in May to raise money to fix, repair and keep up county roads and bridges. "It just seems like my days in Washington, D.C. are back, and it's called 'tax and spend,'" said Baker, a former national representative of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who was based in the nation's capital. Sales tax in Ohio The base sales tax rate for all counties in Ohio is 5.75 percent, and they have the ability to ask voters for increases through ballot issues. On top of the 5.75 percent, consumers in Lorain County pay an additional 0.75 percent for a total of 6.5 percent or 6.5 cents on every dollar spent. That means Lorain County has one of the four lowest sales tax rates in the state, with 84 counties at 6.75 percent or higher and only four below that. Those four include Lorain County, Butler County in suburban Cincinnati, and Stark and Wayne counties in Northeastern Ohio. Those are the only four with 6.5 percent sales tax rates, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation, or ODT. Neighboring Huron County has 7.25 percent, while Ashland County has 7 percent. Erie and Medina counties, which also border Lorain County, have 6.75 percent sales tax according to the Department of Taxation Cuyahoga and Franklin counties have the highest sales tax rates in the state, at 8 percent. Riddell said raising Lorain County's sales tax doesn't put it at a disadvantage to its neighbors. "Even with the (previous) quarter-percent we were among the lowest in the state," and voters will be able to make "a vote of their conscience" on the matter in November, he said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com