Mahoning County's final election reports caused some upset among incumbents -- including a renewal sales tax.
Voters denied the controversial .5 percent county sales tax, which lost by more than 9,000 votes. Commissioner Anthony Traficanti was disappointed in the outcome, but said the commissioners will put it on the ballot in the May primary. This time, he said, the wording will be clear that it is a renewal levy.
"Quite frankly, the way the ballot language read as an additional tax, who in this economy would vote for an additional tax?" Traficanti said. "The campaign begins tomorrow, and we'll take the message back out to the people, but we want to definitely make sure that the ballot language says renewal."
Elections Board Director Thomas McCabe and an election worker were penalized recently for the wording the tax as "additional" instead of "renewal." It received a lot of attention throughout the county and Traficanti believes it is the reason the renewal levy did not pass.
Other upsets included the ousting of Boardman Trustees Robyn Gallitto and Kathy Miller, receiving only 14 and 12 percent of the vote, respectively. Voters replaced them with Brad Calhoun and Thomas Costello.
In Campbell, Mayor John Dill was defeated by George Krinos after holding the office for ten years. Meanwhile, an Austintown Township Trustee was lead to his political demise following criminal charges.
The same day he was suspended from practicing law for failing to pay his bi-annual registration fee, Warren "Bo" Pritchard lost re-election. He has also been accused of taking money from clients while neglecting to provide them with legal services. He's also facing a 90-day drunk driving jail sentence stemming from a September incident.
Mahoning County voters did, however, choose to keep their libraries. The Mahoning County Library tax passed overwhelmingly 71 percent to 29 percent. The Mahoning County Children Services levy also passed by a landslide.
