CASE IN POINT: WHY DO OELSLAGER & SCHURING SUPPORT AN INEQUITY ON STARK COUNTY & OTHER URBAN COUNTIES ON APPORTIONMENT OF GASOLINE TAX REVENUES?

UPDATED:  FEBRUARY 7, 2019

STARK COUNTY TO LOSE $4 MILLION IN FUTURE ROAD CONSTRUCTION, IF NO NEW REVENUES (VIA GASOLINE TAX INCREASE?) IS FORTHCOMING

Within recent weeks articles began appearing in media reports regarding Ohio running out of gasoline tax revenues for "additional" Ohio roadway construction work.

If there is no increase in revenues, here is how Stark County could be affected.

First, from Jeff Dotson of SCATS:

Jeff G. Dotson <JGDotson@starkcountyohio.gov>
To: 'tramols@att.net'
Cc: Bob A. Nau, Keith A. Bennett, David R. Torrence, Jeffrey R. Dutton

Feb 7 at 2:16 PM

Mr. Olson,

Bob Nau asked me to make some calculations and respond to your request.  A couple months back, ODOT informed all of the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO’s) in the state that due to ODOT’s financial condition, they would be reducing their discretionary allocations of federal funds to the MPO’s beginning in FY 2021.  The attached file summarizes those reductions for each year through 2025.  The numbers on the left of the page were provided by ODOT.  The “Reduction from 2020” calculations were done by this office.

..

Jeff Dotson, Principal Planner
Stark County Regional Planning Commission/
Stark County Area Transportation Study
...

Here's a pdf file which shows the particulars:



So the politicians are on the hunt for ways to enact additional taxes in a manner acceptable to Ohioans.

There is no doubt to The Stark County Political Report (SCPR, The Report) that the movers and shakers among Ohio's road construction stakeholder community will drive the Ohio General Assembly (OGA, controlled overwhelmingly by Republicans) and newly elected Republican governor. Mike DeWine to come up with a plan to deal with existing and growing urban congestion here in Stark County and across the urban areas of the state.

Ohio's gasoline tax was last raised in 2005 by the OGA by 2 cents per gallon.

To the SCPR, the more important factor (i.e. new funding is not an option but a given) is how the replacement tax revenue will be apportioned among Ohio's counties.

And this is where Stark County's focus on State Rep Scott Oelslager and State Senator Kirk Schuring come into the picture.

Under the current scheme of Ohio gasoline tax distribution, Stark County (one of Ohio's "urban" counties) gets a return of $6.41 per resident whereas the quintessential "rural" Vinton County gets $182.50.

Cleveland.com (Cleveland Plain Dealer) reporter Rich Exner is unparalleled in Ohio journalism for his development of and expansion of statistical information with its focus on the effectiveness and efficiencies of much of Ohio's state/local governments.

Exner has created a database that all citizens should access in order to find out how well their schools, county and local governments are doing in terms of public services.

Look at this map of Ohio (as annotated by the SCPR) show the obvious inequity in road funding for Ohio's eight largest counties compared to the least populated:

As readers of the SCPR know, this blogger "has a beef" with:

• Representative Scott Oelslager (35 years in the OGA back and forth with Kirk Schuring [25 years] in the Ohio House and Senate)
•  in a successful ploy to avoid "the will of the people" who voted to impose term limits on representatives/senators a 8 consecutive years in a 1992 vote of the people

for not taking advantage of their combined 60 years in the OGA (much of it in leadership positions) to make sure that Stark County gets its fair share of tax dollars sent to Columbus back home and for not protecting Stark County from the draconian cuts in Ohio funding of local governments and "unfunded Ohio mandates" on local governments.

Add to that list the fact that Stark County (Ohio's 8th largest county; population 374,273) gets the "short-shrift" on getting a proportionate return on gasoline tax dollars collected by the state of Ohio when compared to Vinton County (88th in population rank at 13,142).

Couple the population disparity factor with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) the Stark/Vinton County 2017 County Highway System Mileage Certification, to wit:

While one might argue that Stark merely doubles on county highway maintenance/repair road miles and that the equal distribution formula ($2.4 million for each county) is not all that much out of proportion.

The SCPR contends by standardizing on the mileage disparity Stark still should receive twice as much as Vinton.

Moreover, the population disparity of Stark over Vinton is 28 plus Stark over Vinton.  That means that there are potentially 28 drivers using the roads in Stark every 1 in Vinton County.

Do ya think there might be more wear and tear on Stark County roads as contrasted to Vinton County's?

If Oelslager and Kirk had been doing their jobs to fight for fairness for Stark County just on the road funding factor alone; it appears that Stark County taxpayers are "donors" to Vinton County and the other 79 Ohio counties with a lesser population.

Extreme gerrymandering figures into how urban areas fare in the Ohio Legislature.

The gerrymandering was somewhat reflected in the 2018 gubernatorial race between Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Richard Cordray in the sense that Cordray carried only carried the urban areas of Ohio, to wit:

Schuring and Oelslager have been part of the creation of gerrymandered isolated Democrat-esque urban districts and the maximizing of largely Republican-esque rural districts.

Most, if not all, of Ohio's rural counties are represented by Republicans who hail from these rural areas that may or may not catch fringes of urban areas.  A clear example of this mix is the Stark County based Ohio House 50th District represented by Paris Township resident and, of course, Republican Reggie Stoltzfus.

It has been a large bit rural and a smidgen of urban, perhaps, in the gerrymandered pro-Republican districts.

On the other hand, urban (mostly Democratic) voters are crammed into a "Republicans do not have a realistic chance" districts with a few rural based voters.  A clear example of this mix is the Stark County based 49th Ohio House District represented by former Canton inner city councilman Tom West.

The districts have been drawn by the Republican dominated Legislature which seemingly has been torturedly and politically designed to cater to the predominately Republican, largely rustic, voter base who likely do not care two hoots about urban Ohio.

One thing that Schuring ought to take into account (he is a major proponent of the Professional Football Hall of Fame  [PFHOF, HOF-VP] is that the inequity in road funding urban versus rural just might be a significant factor as to whether or not Stark County's "Strengthening Stark" (which the SCPR sees as a "front" HOF-VP advocates) can come up with the massive amounts of money to build support "off-site" infrastructure that will be essential on whether or not the Professional Football Hall of Fame expansion project gets anywhere near its projected $1 billion cost.

It is notable that the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce is not part of the coalition working to secure future Ohio road addition projects.

Maybe we can expect a column this Sunday by Repository publisher Jim Porter adjuring the likes of Denny Sauner (CR C of C, a colleague of Porters at the chamber), C. David Baker of the PRHOF (Porter is on the Board of Directors) and The Rep itself to sign on as coalition members.

After all, he does rag on those who stand off and are to directly supportive of the HOF-VP in that they have unanswered questions.

Hey, Jim! look at the following chart.  Be consistent.  Get your buds involved in the coalition!!

Only the Stark County Regional Planning arm of the Stark County commissioners office has signed on.

Here is a list of coalition members