POLAND — Eric Ungaro, trustee chairman for Poland Township, admits that the additional 0.98-mill, 5-year Poland Township Police levy on the ballot Nov. 7 is “complicated.”

It would raise about $358,000 annually and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $34.30 per year for current expenses of the police department.

The complicated part is that the township is eliminating two smaller levies that it has and replacing them with the proposed levy. Though it might sound like the new levy should be called a “replacement,” it is actually called an additional levy.

Ungaro said the two levies are being eliminated in favor of the new one because the Ohio Department of Taxation told the township last year that one of the current levies, a 5-year levy the township enacted in 1978 “wasn’t legal,” so the state is terminating that levy effective at the end of this year. The reason the levy was not legal was that it did not tax the village, Ungaro said.

The problem that was discovered has been found in a number of jurisdictions across the state, he said.

The township then checked with the county prosecutor’s office regarding a similar continuous police levy the township enacted in 1981. The prosecutor’s office recommended the township get rid of it also and ask the voters to approve one levy totaling the same millage as the two others.

Poland Township Police Chief Greg Wilson said the two levies were enacted in the years before the township police district was created in 1995. During that time, the township had the ability to tax only the township instead of the township and the village, but the levies were not changed, he said.

“The wording was wrong on the 1978 levy,” Wilson said. The 1981 levy was set up the same way, so the township trustees decided to put on a new levy to provide 0.98 mills of revenue. The 1978 levy goes away at the end of this year. The township will remove the 1981 levy if the new one passes, Wilson said.

“We’re removing two levies — one voluntarily and one not voluntarily, and we’re creating one renewable 5-year police levy or 0.98 mills,” Wilson said. “It’s the same exact millage.”

The new levy will generate essentially the same amount of revenue for the police department as the amount generated by the two current levies. According to the Mahoning County Auditor’s Office, the current levies generate $358,083 per year, compared to the $358,000 that the county auditor estimates the new levy will generate.

Wilson urges township voters to approve the new levy because not having all of the $358,000 would be “like two steps forward and three steps back.” Wilson said it’s concerning that township voters will see “additional” levy on the ballot for Poland Township police even though that does not tell the entire story.

Township officials are trying to explain the situation to township residents in simple terms. It’s messaging to voters is: “1978, off. 1981, off. We’re not collecting those anymore. In 2023, we collected 0.98 (mills). It’s a wash,” Wilson said.

“It’s hard to even put that on signs,” the chief said. The police department is sending out flyers to the community. The final flyer will say: “1978 off, 1981 off, no new millage for Poland Township residents. 0.98 new levy,” he said.

Poland Township has about 15,000 people. Its police department has two officers working per shift and has a coverage area of 21 square miles, Wilson said.

“For us to lose this money, we’re already just running basic shifts,” Wilson said.

The department has 15 full-time officers and four part-time officers.

The department has a $1.4 million budget, some of which comes from the township’s general fund. The department has applied for grants, but the township’s relatively low crime rate and relatively high per-capita income makes it hard to qualify for grants, Wilson said.

But the police department’s costs continue to rise. A new cruiser cost $34,000 in 2022, and now costs $46,000, Wilson said.

erunyan@vindy.com