A tax increase for a rec center in Macedonia has the potential to delay the November ballot, which includes much bigger issues, including who will be the next president of the United States.
Summit County Board of Elections officials scratched their heads for the better part of a public meeting Tuesday trying to understand why Macedonia City Council has requested three ballot issues to go after two tax increases.
Each ballot issue would raise the municipal income tax by .25 percent; one would be collected for 10 years to fund road and sewer projects and the other for 20 years to cover construction and upkeep at the city’s recreational center.
The road and sewer tax is set as Issue 58 on the proposed November ballot.
“That’s the straight forward one,” said Bill Rich, chairman of the county election board. “I don’t see any problems with that ... This is where it gets complicated.”
The other issue, the recreational center tax, would appear twice before voters as issues 59 and 60. The language for each is identical. The catch? Even if voters approve Issue 59, it would pass only if 58 passes. Conversely, Issue 60 could pass only if 58 fails.
Confused? You’re not alone.
The board of elections wrestled with the dueling contingency clauses for nearly a half hour, illustrating a vexing problem that might lead unwitting voters to think they’re actually voting for three, not two, tax increases.
“Have we ever had an issue like this in history?” asked board member Alex Arshinkoff, who was critical of Macedonia officials for complicating matters a week before the ballot is to be created and three weeks before overseas Ohioans in the military begin filling it out.
Macedonia Law Director Mark Guidetti, who sat quietly throughout the episode until introduced by county legal counsel, affirmed that there are only two tax issues, not three.
“That contingency is only for the city’s code language,” Guidetti said, explaining that Issue 60 was requested “purely for administrative purposes.”
“That’s your legal mess to resolve,” responded board member Bryan Williams, who probed into the murky reasoning behind the contradictory contingency clauses. “I just wonder if it’s fair to the voters to put an issue on the ballot that could pass but still fail and not tell the voters why.”
Guidetti said Macedonia City Council will convene to adopt clearer language at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Arshinkoff questioned changing any ballot language after the Aug. 10 deadline.
He and Rich, a Republican and a Democrat, respectively, agreed that they may be able to update ballot language in committee without having the full board vote on changes.
But that’s only if they agree that the new ballot language clears up any confusion. Arshinkoff, who called the Macedonia mix-up a “big oops,” cautioned that additional ambiguity could lead the county elections board to consult the state election’s chief, which could further delay the ballot-making process.
Time is running out before ballots must be made and mailed out for early voting, which begins Oct. 12. Overseas voting begins Sept. 24.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.