Crowded ballot prompts delay for sales tax issue

7/29/2004

FINDLAY Hancock County commissioners say the November ballot is too crowded for them to even consider asking voters to renew a 0.25 percent sales tax scheduled to expire next year.

In the midst of a countywide financial crisis, county voters approved the emergency, two-year tax in May, 2003, to prevent layoffs at the sheriff s office and jail.

Commissioners, who could continue the tax without putting it to a public vote, said there will be time after the November election to put the sales tax before voters.

As many as eight school districts that sit in all of or partially in Hancock County will be on the ballot, and the Hancock County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities also wants to request a 2.8-mill additional levy.