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Who protects Boardman?
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By Todd Franko (Contact)
Youngstown is the historic and cultural core of Mahoning County and will hold that title for years to come.
But I would offer that Youngstown is not the most important community on a day-to-day basis within Mahoning County right now.
That place is Boardman.
This is not to say “as Boardman goes, so goes Mahoning.” And it’s not to encourage a Peoria-like “How’s it bouncing in Boardman?”
But within the county, consider Boardman for the following measures:
Mahoning County government is dependent on sales tax revenues, and where do the bulk of those sales taxes come from?
Add up the number of people who work in the medical and nonprofit industries, and a large amount of them are in Boardman.
Combine its residential population with the daily working and shopping population, and you have the county’s biggest people center on most days of the year.
In previous decades, the number of manufacturing jobs was a true community measure. If you tally the Boardman manufacturing jobs — from Schwebel’s Bread on Midlothian Boulevard to Gia Russa sauces on McClurg Road — I would bet even that measure bodes well for Boardman compared with other county entities.
Protecting all of this? Well, it falls to Boardman’s 40,889 residents in a county of 238,823 residents.
No sales taxes (that all goes to the county); no income taxes; user fees for stores are nonsustainable; shares in state funds are dwindling.
That gets me to Tuesday’s controversial vote.
The nation’s economy is hardly on the road to recovery, and the public sentiment toward government spending — especially government spending on themselves — is, at best, guarded.
Yet, Boardman residents are being asked to vote to add $3.8 million in property taxes via a five-year levy.
I’ll stop short of calling it a “police levy” as the campaign calls it. It’s one of the problems I have with the levy.
With $2.4 million in current revenue subsequently coming out of police coffers (if the levy passes) and going to replace lost funding elsewhere, “for police” is rightly chided. Saying “$1.4 million for police and $2.4 million for elsewhere” is fair.
I also don’t like an August vote. It’s never passed the smell test and never will.
The rest of what I don’t like has little to do with Boardman and more to do with the position Boardman is in.
Boardman has evolved into a perilous predicament: It provides wealth and income for the region, as noted above, yet shares a border with one of the poorest ZIP codes in America.
And it is seemingly on its own to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself. It was commerce disintegration in Youngstown that helped create Boardman decades ago. Where will it go after Boardman?
Boardman trustees are not shy about wanting security to come from more than taxing its residents.
They said they waited two months to meet personally with then-U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson about their plight. And when he stood them up, they vowed to make sure voters knew. And Wilson lost Boardman and his seat last year.
They’re not thrilled with state Rep. Ron Gerberry, whom they said has not stepped up enough in their plight to establish taxes or fees unique to a township their size that generates so much revenue for the county.
Gerberry, whose blood pressure is likely just coming down now from our chat, said he’s not one to blow smoke.
“I can tell them the truth, or I can tell them what they want to hear and then accomplish nothing,” he said.
He said any direction you go with a tax program gets attacked — counties will fight it, car dealers will fight it, retailers will fight it, arbitrators will spend it, etc.
Accurately measuring Boardman is difficult, which surprises me.
No one — from the state to Boardman to the county — can tell you definitively how much Boardman generates in annual sales taxes for the county. One official said more than 50 percent; township officials estimate more than 70 percent.
No one has ready stats on the historic prices of Boardman homes, and if there’s been a decline in sale prices in recent years.
This morning, almost 100 homes on Vindy.com are for sale in Boardman for less than $70,000. That’s a lot of low-priced inventory, said one Realtor. Canfield and Poland combined have 30. You say “affordable;” I say “cheap rental investment.”
And then there are the perceptions.
One Realtor said any property north of Shields Road is in trouble.
Another long-time resident, who lives in the last house in Youngstown before Boardman starts, sees a future where the housing within the Market-Glenwood-Midlothian-U.S. 224 square will be an extension of Youngstown’s South Side.
“Not in my lifetime; but yours for sure,” he said to me.
It’s ironic that within this same perimeter, another Realtor sees the answer.
The Glen neighborhood, as desired a place to live two generations ago as Fifth Avenue and the Youngstown Country Club area, is facing challenges. But active residents keep it from being overlooked, another Realtor said.
That activism is vital within all of Boardman, he said.
Boardman officials have been active in getting their house in order, with new health-care premiums for staff, frozen wages for police and fire and lower starting wages for those same departments, among other things.
A friend of mine asked, “So, with all you’ve learned, would you vote for it if you lived here?”
I don’t see any political leaders racing to protect Boardman despite Boardman’s significance in the Valley.
I don’t see Boardman’s plight getting easier in terms of property values, crime or even more obscure things such as homeowner’s insurance rates. Its population trended downward in the latest census.
I don’t see Youngstown getting more control over its plight, let alone helping its neighbor’s.
Still, I don’t want to pay more taxes.
But I think in this case, I’d have to.
Todd Franko is editor of The Vindicator. He likes e-mails about stories and our newspaper. E-mail him at tfranko@vindy.com. He blogs, too, on vindy.com.
Comments
If it was for the police only - I would support this. Last time, we in Boardman supported a police levy, the vandals known as the Trustees stole the levy money to prop up the finances that they have screwed up for years - just like Washington DC.
As pointed out in this article, the bulk of the money ISNT going to the police - but to the slush fund known as the vandals general fund.
Therefore, Boardman WILL not be better off, because the vandals will not fully fund and staff the required police
forces and property taxes will rise as not only home prices drop - but sales tax funds dry up in this continuing depression.
I live in Boardman and I voted NO!
I also think an August election is a crime in itself.
What do these Trustees want by lobbying a Congressman and a State Rep - why new ways to steal OUR money.
Hope it goes down in flames - but because of the crime scene of having the special election in August with all the government workers and their buddies voting for it - it probably will pass.
Nice comments Mr. Franko.
The answer to Boardman's problems isn't to just keep on taxing the residents and only the residents. Boardman needs to incorporate and become a city. That would open up a whole new world of available money. This should have been done 10 years ago. Why hasn't it been done, and why won't it now? The township trustees would lose their power trip.
When seconds count the police are only minutes away. The police do not protect you they only fill out the paper work after the crime.NO NEW TAXES
Author50: If it fails, and we lose the safety forces that they say we will, what then? I'm fairly certain that is Franko's point here. If the Township is trying to keep some of that sales tax money in Boardman, how can people not rally around this. We residents lose a majority of our police service to businesses and people at or going to and from them. People focus on crime alone, but nobody mentions the large number of crashes that occur in Boardman that our police handle etc... It's not all about "crime", it's about total police service. Even the state gets a large amount of sales tax from Boardman and how does the state respond? By cutting the local funds to balance the state budget, partially with sales tax from businesses that you and I (property owners) pay our police and fire to provide service for.
You could hire 150 police in Boardman and it STILL won't stop the crime. It's too late. You see what high taxes and a bad economy can do....lot less cars on 224. You have reached a peak of "there are more of them than there are of you." Your problem is will you tax yourself to death trying to reach a higher number that will NEVER BE ATTAINABLE. Your off target on this one Todd, protecting what taxbase is left, consolidating and regionalizing, and some of these businesses hiring their own security is the answer. But another levy...there isn't enough money son.
Lost in all the drama is the fact that the businesses that draw so many services from the township also pay taxes. Check the auditor's website to see what Walmart, the Mall, etc pay. It's not a small number.
Talk about an article that is little more than a about a gutless, CYA semi-endorsement. Then to blame it all on Wilson! Priceless! When pretty little Poland has these problems let's see where you really stand, tough guy.
@nodice: What the businesses pay in property taxes was to be in the piece, but there was just too much to get in. To that end though, Boardman's property tax base, according to the officials, is about 50/50 — residential vs. commercial.
The township employees above want so badly for Boardman to become a city, enabling them to get into your income as well as property taxes. Then they could get bigger raises and better benefits than they already have. Retire at 45 instead of 50-55, have 50 vacation days instead of 40, free health care forever, and even sweeter pensions.
Franko doesn't even mention the state audit which said Boardman employees were being paid 20% too much. (peer communities) With a 14 million budget for wages and benefits, that's almost 3 million too much. 3 million would be more than enough to increase police manpower and have money left over for infrastructure. Of course any leftover money is always the target of the employees and that's why Boardman is in fiscal trouble. The 40+ million in inheritance monies that went into the pockets of the employees with total disregard of the future and how they were going to pay for it.
The answer always seems to be more money for the tots running the show. If they had shown even a scintilla of fiscal responsibility in the past, the money would be there.
Higher taxes does 2 things.
Builds in a higher cost of an inept government and takes more money out of the pockets of those who support the retail establishment. If you think taking almost 4 million out of the Boardman economy and into the pockets of the spendthrift government will be good for businesses, I got some land in Florida to sell.
I'll bet the Vindy needs to endorse this levy because a certain advertising agency might pull ads from the Vindy if they don't.
If it passes, in order to cut my costs to pay for the additional property taxes, I say eliminate the Vindy from your budget. For me, that pays for the additional levy money.
Well Todd, I see you chose to avoid the real questions, the 2.2 mil levy money and where it actually was spent on and not officers as promised?
Also you chose not to address my direct challenge to another point,
I ask again,
Todd I am also going to take you to task on the comment below
"The police department, which has shrunk to 47 police officers, would get 10 new ones if the levy passed. And they would be hired at a new, much lower pay scale. Starting pay is $32,000, down from $46,000 and present employees are under pay freezes and are paying higher percentages toward their health-care coverage."
This new lower scale is not for all new hires unless they plan on only hiring rookies, pay level will be adjusted to match year for year from their previous service, pay and benefits, I would also that would include carry over of vacation and sick days if they still have that.
If I am wrong Todd Post the latest contract language and show us all where this is not the fact. NO Savings what so ever.
And last but not the least, the irresponsible behavior of all involved being the Township, the Vindicator along with the other news outlets unnecessarily putting the general public and retailers in harms way by trumpeting over and over on how understaffed the Police are and it is open season to rob an pillage, what do you have to say for yourself.
Apparently not much, you can run but you cannot hide from the facts.
You can still answer before the election if you wish, but ignoring these issues seems to be your way of endorsement of that behavior.
After your previous attempts to be the silent ones hero, you apparently are not all that you seemed to be, that only leaves me disappointed, and dismayed that you really had the chance to do what was right and someone or something convinced you to back off, really disapointing.
Boardman needs to incorporate and gain more direct control over its own destiny. If the citizens fail to recognize this smart move, then shame on them if another community aggressively goes after them through annexations. The township form of government was not designed with places like Boardman in mind, and they can ill-afford for Youngstown to continue to salivate over their tax base.
My favorite site in Boardman on 224 after a fender bender. 1 Boardman Police Office, 1 Mahoning County Deputy Sheriff, 1 State Highway Patrol officer to complete the trifecta!
Scam, scam, scam. Doesn't matter what the trustees and police dept say, this is going to go upside down after the goofs vote it in. Paying an additional $50K just to place this on a special election was corrupt in itself, yet the fools with blinders will flock to the precinct, eager to speak loudly how they support the Boardman police who are United Against Crime. What were you up to the point where you had to start trying to brainwash the herd? Right, doing business as usual. meaning nothing to prevent the trash that has infiltrated Boardman, just sitting in vacant parking lots talking on your cell phones, or to each other, while the ghetto crawlers rool through uninhibited. Just like your fearless leader Nichols said, criminals will go where they know they can get away with it...
PMI Group "Mortgage Insurance" may file for bankruptcy?
... talk about having a difficult time selling a home.