The SCPR knows Commissioner Todd Bosley well enough to believe that he has been working non-stop since the Stark Citizens Right to Vote Committee (The Committee) formed in early 2009 to find ways to defeat the committee's initiative.What is the initiative?
To get an issue on the ballot come November to repeal the imposition of a 0.50 county sales/use tax designed to generate money to fix Stark County general fund woes and to come up with the wherewithal to repair Stark's broken 9-1-1 system.
And Bosley is not alone.
He will have the full force of Stark County government behind him.
Already, according to a Massillon Independent article Legal questions remain as sales tax foes submit repeal petitions (online - August 18):
... Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Deborah Dawson, prompted by a news article on a sales-tax repeal effort in Allen County, began researching whether the Right to Vote Committee needed to file a petition to also repeal the county use tax ...Doesn't surprise the SCPR.
This move has Stark County commissioner Todd Bosley's handprints all over it.
Bosley does not play nice. It is hardball all the way with this guy. Just ask Richard Regula and anyone else who gets in his way.
Bosley's political future is tied to two key factors:
(1) He promised to fix 9-1-1 in his campaign against Richard Regula (2006) and he must deliver or be tagged as a failure on an issue that he said was all-encompassing.
(2) The 0.50 sales/use tax imposition was his idea and a loss means that Stark County Republicans (even lead by the squeamish Jeff Matthews) will scurry about to get an opponent for Bosley in 2010. A loss on the tax issue likely means that even a John Hagan could be problematical to Bosley's re-election prospects.
The moral of the story: Bosley is motivated.
Stark Countians and The Committee should expect a number of measures like the Dawson one and others that try to short circuit validation of the petitions.
The SCPR questions whether Debbie Dawson came up with the "news article" all by her lonesome. Perhaps a little prompting from Bosley?
And if The Committee gets by the the pre-certification challenges, the committee members can expect a full scale warfare from the hand of Bosley but also from nearly every other Stark countywide elected official (except for the judges).
The SCPR believes that committee leader Tom Marcelli will be a focus of the anti-repeal forces. Marceill's past Stark County property tax problems (he paid up on August 7, 2009) and his intemperate remarks to county officials widely reported in area media make him - in the opinion of yours truly - a distraction and perhaps a reason the repeal effort fails.
Stark Countians only need to look to the north to see what Mayor Don Plusquellic's forces did to Plusquellic recall leader Warner Mendenhall.
It strikes the SCPR how naive activists are in terms of "they better be 'squeaky clean'" on matters like taxes and personal conduct because if they are not; their political enemies will make them the issue and the issue they care about goes down in flames.
So if Marcelli remains "the visible one" for The Committee, then watch for Bosley et al to concentrate on him.
Once Bosley and friends are done with him, an unfamiliar out-of-towner would be asking: what office is Tom Marcelli running for?
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