The three commissioners passed the tax to cover operations in the county justice system: courts, jails, prosecutors, and particularly the sheriff's department, with a budget so lean that 22 deputies were laid off last month.
But some voters are incensed, because a similar plan requesting a `smaller' tax increase was just rejected nearly 4 to 1 at the polls last November.
Mark Adams represents a fledgling political organization that is anti-tax....
MARK ADAMS: "Overwhelmingly, people do not want to increase taxes because of the state of our economy, but yet they're gonna raise it despite our protests."
Commissioner Ted Kalo says he took several phone calls like that today, but he and fellow commissioners Lori Kokoski and Betty Blair contend this tax hike is an emergency measure, and that they are mandated by law to cover these costs.
TED KALO: "There's a lot of issues out there that aren't necessarily controllable, but we are required to fund operations to make sure everyone has the due process. That's what our constitution tells us, so we're required to meet those needs."
The last jail tax passed in Lorain County - in 1995 - now raises only 60% of what's needed.
When the new tax goes to voters as a ballot issue next November, it will appear as a 'criminal justice sales tax' - which commissioners hope will have more appeal to voters.
If they pass it, Kalo says, the money will allow restoration of lost jobs in both the justice and other county departments. If not, collection of the tax will cease in March 2010.
Rick Jackson, 90.3.
