It's common practice in many Ohio communities. You work in one city, live in another...pay income tax to both, but often your home community offers a lower tax rate since you're essentially being taxed twice. For a long time, folks in Lorain had a good deal going. Residents who worked and paid income taxes outside the city received a tax credit of up to two percent. But starting this year, the city cut the credit in half . That means many residents are facing sharply higher tax bills. Mayor Tony Krasienko says with heavy industry leaving Lorain, the city needs to get the money from somewhere.
KRASIENKO: We only have 2400 workers at our steel mill and 800 of those are laid off. We no longer have Ford we no longer have the ship yard. We've been in a steady decline in our economy for the past 30 years.
Residents upset over the higher tax bills have organized a petition drive that would give voters the chance in November to repeal the tax changes. Mike Scherach is Lorain's former law director. He's working now to collect the more than 18-hundred signatures to get the measure on the ballot. Scherach says Lorain hasn't done enough to find other sources of money.
SCHERACH: There are answers out there and certainly there are many cities that would love to have the fabulous resources Lorain has that are not being utilized and developed. And the answer for the finances is not to double tax the hard working people of Lorain who have no choice but to work in other cities. We cannot afford to lose these people.
Scherach says there are other sources of revenue that could be developed, such as the port. But that's a longterm strategy. Mayor Krasienko says the city needs the money now. The tax changes are expected to raise more than 1.5 million dollars in additional revenue each year.