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Campaign for Issue 2 starts out low-key

THE BLADE

Campaign for Issue 2 starts out low-key

Reaching voters a ‘grass-roots effort’

In giving her State of the City speech Feb. 10, and again speaking Feb. 22 to the Toledo Rotary Club, Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson barely mentioned her hopes of passing a quarter-percent increase in Toledo’s temporary city income tax on March 15.

Nor has there been a high-profile, “blue-ribbon” committee appointed. The mayor made little effort to win over the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce, sending top staffers to a single meeting, but never personally lobbying the president of the chamber.

Other than a kickoff of the “Vote Yes on 2” committee Feb. 8, the campaign has been all but invisible.

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That should change soon. A sign has been produced in blue and gold colors, and some mailing is planned. Whether it will be enough to persuade Toledo voters that the additional revenue is needed is unclear.

There’s even a question of whether the low-profile campaign is deliberate — a kind of replay of Ms. Hicks-Hudson’s successful mayoral campaign last year of quietly turning out sympathetic African-American, union, and loyal Democratic voters.

Ms. Hicks-Hudson won that election in November, garnering 35 percent of the vote and justifying a $5,000 bonus to the campaign manager who made it happen.

Now that same campaign manager, Ernie Davis, is running the “Yes on Issue 2 — Investing in Toledo’s Future” campaign.

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“You’re going to start seeing the signs,” Mr. Davis told The Blade. “We are going to be, over the next three weeks or so, going around to community events, block watches, senior centers, different places in the community talking to people about Issue 2.”

Whether the committee will advertise on television hasn’t been decided.

“The bottom line is this is a grass-roots effort. It’s not something that’s fun to talk about. It’s not something the mayor enjoys having to put before the citizens, but something that’s necessary. The bottom line is the streets need to be fixed, and there’s no money with which to do it other than this,” Mr. Davis said.

City voters are being asked to approve boosting the 0.75 percent tax that has been ratified every three or four years since 1983 to a full 1 percent. The temporary tax is added to Toledo’s 1.5-percent permanent income tax and provides the bulk of the city’s operating and capital-improvements revenues.

At Mayor Hicks-Hudson’s urging, city council has committed to devote $16.6 million of the $18.6 million the 0.25-percent add-on would raise to residential street repair. The remaining $2 million would go to the general fund.

At its campaign kickoff Feb. 8, Mayor Hicks-Hudson was backed by representatives of labor unions and the Democratic Party. Few business people were in the picture.

Ms. Hicks-Hudson said last week the campaign was picking up its pace and denied the strategy is to limit campaign outreach to those most likely to vote for it — senior citizens and others not collecting paychecks — while hoping likely opponents would pay less attention to the question.

“No it’s not on the down low,” she said, laughing at the idea. “What we’re doing is we’re trying to reach out and touch all of our voters. We’re doing phone calls, going out to community organizations talking. We’re going to get the word out as best we can.

“This is a time in our community to bite the bullet and take on this additional financial burden. I’ve gone to several churches and talked about it to different leaders, been to different community gatherings,” Ms. Hicks-Hudson said.

As a candidate last year, when asked about the idea of raising taxes, Ms. Hicks-Hudson was noncommittal, saying that would be a last resort, and that first she would pressure the state legislature and governor to restore state aid to municipalities that has been sharply cut during the last six years.

“We can try to fight with Columbus, and I’m going to continue to do that and get those dollars returned to us, but in the meantime our streets are crumbling,” Mayor Hicks-Hudson said during a news conference last week.

Turnout could decide the fate of the tax increase, which the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce opposes.

The March 15 primary election will attract hard-core Democrats and Republicans eager to vote for their nominees for president and a U.S. Senate seat. Republicans also will settle a three-way primary fight for the 9th District Congressional race and a lively contest for Lucas County and state Republican central committees. All those elections will help bring out Republican voters.

Organizers may logically expect that Democrats would tend to support the income tax while Republicans would tend to be opposed.

Independent and unaffiliated voters in Toledo will have no reason to turn out except to vote on the 1 percent temporary income tax or on the other referendum on the ballot for Toledo voters. Issue 1 asks whether corporations should be denied personhood status. The vote would put Toledo on record as supporting a Constitutional amendment aimed at reining in corporations’ right to spend money on political campaigns.

Toledo Councilman Sandy Spang, one of three on the 12-member council who voted against putting the tax-increase question on the March 15 ballot, said she’s not aware of plans for an active campaign of opposition.

“The Chamber of Commerce has made statements and I’m pleased that they came out and offered to pay for the first phase of Priority-Based Budgeting,” Ms. Spang said.

She wants to see the city undergo a budget review through the Center for Priority Based Budgeting, something the chamber has endorsed and offered to partially pay for, before asking voters to fork over more taxation.

Stacey Mallett, a spokesman for the chamber, said the organization has let its opposition be known and will continue to do so.

“The Chamber will continue to reach out to our members on the issue and respond to the media as well as actively encourage the mayor and Council to follow through and embrace an independent look at the budget so that all stakeholders understand how the taxpayers’ money is being spent,” Ms. Mallett said.

Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058 or on Twitter @TomFTroy.

First Published March 2, 2016, 5:00 a.m.

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