(VIDEO) COUNTY ENGINEER EXPLAINS USE OF 2007 LICENSE PLATE FEE INCREASE TO COMMISSIONERS. IS STARK COUNTY GETTING A BIG ENOUGH "BANG FOR TAXPAYER" BUCKS?

One of the legacies of Mike Rehfus as county engineer (who passed away in December, 2009) is his successful effort to convince the then commissioners (Bosley and Vignos; Gayle Jackson voted no) to "impose" a $10 permissive county add-on license plate fee.

Because of his untimely death, Refus, of course, left it to others to implement his plan to put Stark County's roads and bridges on a par if not better than counties like Summit who had vastly more money to operate with.  His successor, Keith Bennett, is now fleshing out Refus' dream.

Yours truly had several conversations with Refus about the disparity between Summit and Stark roads (before the license plate increase by former Commissioners Bosley and Vignos) and he would chafe at the comparison.   In response, he would say something like:  "Of course!  Summit has five times the money that Stark has!!"  (the figure "five times" is not meant to be literal)

Refus had to work hard on the political side of the question to get Bosley (a Democrat) and Vignos (a Republican) to join together to impose the fee increase.  And he had a huge barrier.  Former commissioner Gayle Jackson was adamantly against the increase.  Her son, Shane, (chief deputy for Massillon clerk of courts Johnnie A. Maier, Jr. and political director of the Stark County Democratic Party) went to work on Bosley to get him to join mother in rejecting Refus' entreaty.

Bosley did the right thing in joining Vignos and incurred the political ire of the Jacksons and their political patron saint Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.  Had Gayle Jackson had the foresight to support the increase, Stark roads and bridges would have benefited about seven months earlier.  Because of her "no" vote, the tax did not begin to be collected until January 1, 2008.

Yesterday, Engineer Bennett was in front of Stark County Commissioners Janet Creighton, Pete Ferguson and Tom Bernabei to give an accounting of how the money is being spent.

SCPR readers can see the entire session in the video that accompanies this blog which is accessible at the end of this written material.

Here is some interesting information for readers to digest before viewing the video.