Lorain County Commissioner Betty Blair says she hopes the study will help convince residents to pass a one-quarter percent sales tax increase in November. The commissioners voted to impose an increase last year, but enough signatures were collected to put it to a popular vote, and it was defeated. It's been more than a dozen years since the county increased its sales tax, and Blair says the extra revenue is sorely needed.
Betty Blair: I thought we needed, and apparently my position was shared by some, that an outside evaluation would be helpful to taxpayers in deciding whether or not our need was real. It certainly is real to us.
Blair says the Lorain County government is losing $3.5 million this year because of a redistribution of state funds based on shifting population figures. At the same time, the county must pay for a new judgeship and build more jail capacity. And, Blair says, departmental budgets have been frozen for at least five years.
Bill Rice, 90.3.