Regional Planning and Revenue Sharing Supported

The Northeast Ohio Mayors and City Managers Association voted overwhelmingly on May 15 to support continuing an effort to bring greater regional planning and revenue sharing to the region.

The effort, funded in part by the Fund for Our Economic Future, has been called radical, momentous and historical. The region's media recognized the importance of the region's elected officials deciding to move forward with an effort to share their local tax dollars and surrender some autonomy for the region's greater good. More details on the group's work is available at www.revenuestudy.org.

To get a full flavor of this effort you should read the various newspaper articles, including coverage from the Plain Dealer, Elyria Chronicle Telegram, Akron Beacon Journal and the Canton Repository.

The mayors made specific recommendations that will be pursued in Phase II of the effort, including that the:

• Directors of the region's Municipal Planning Organizations will prepare a report on how the 16-county region can coordinate planning to accelerate economic growth, minimize the loss of farm land, open space and natural resources, minimize infrastructure costs.
• Directors of the region's sewer and water districts examine how a single, integrated system could minimize costs and support economic development
• Develop a detailed plan to pool and share a percentage of new tax revenue generated by industrial and commercial growth in the region.

This is how Ed Balint of the Canton Repository described the tax sharing element:

Under the concept, townships, villages, cities and counties in Northeast Ohio — at this point, the 16 counties — would share commercial and industrial property taxes and income taxes generated by economic growth, so no communities would lose existing tax revenue. Income taxes would be shared only among those jurisdictions that collect income taxes.

The study group suggests that 20 percent of the income taxes on economic growth be put into a pool. Under the model, 60 percent of the property taxes on new commercial and industrial projects would be retained by the home community. Designed to reduce tax base disparities, the remaining 40 percent would go into a pool, divvied up based on the weakness or strength of a community's tax base, Currin said. Other factors also may be considered, but the formula has not been finalized.