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The Village rallies behind man See page 6
March 4, 2013
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Booth gets respect See page 16
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Sales vs. income: The tax quandary for businesses By Larry Limpf News Editor news@presspublications.com
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uote of The Week
...his reach from the grave is still felt by Ohio’s criminal gangs. John Szozda See page 11
Common People, Uncommon Challenges 50 stories of inspiration
Clay to present Godspell The Clay High School limelighters will present the musical “Godspell.” Performances are March 22, 23 at 7:30 p.m. and March 24 at 3 p.m. A portion of the opening night performance will be donated to Andrew Gale, a Clay Limelighter graduate who is recovering from a spinal cord injury. Pictured in rehearsal, at left, Todd Klewer as Jesus, with, top row: Jared Miller, Sierra Gargac, Trent Cook. Bottom row: Mackenzie Wells and Madison Phillips. At right, Andrew English portrays both Judas and John the Baptist. For more information call 419-693-0665. (Press photos by Ken Grosjean)
Oregon
Schools may refinance, save millions By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com The Oregon school board passed a resolution at its last meeting to authorize Treasurer Jane Fruth to refinance the balance of its school improvement bonds and save the district $3 million. The district issued $44,999,993.05 school improvement bonds on May 12, 2005 to fund the construction of a new elementary school to replace Coy Elementary, and to renovate, add and remodel other buildings in the district, including an addition, partial demolition and renovation of Clay High School. It also funded equipment, furnishings, site improvements and landscaping. “The interest rates have been dropping,” said Fruth at a Feb. 19 meeting. “The rate is roughly ranging from 3 to 5 percent on the current debt. Preliminary numbers as we run our estimates show we could reduce that from 1 to 4 percent. This would save our taxpayers over $3 million over the life of the debt, or roughly $158,000 per year. Any way we can find savings for the taxpayers, we will. This resolution allows us to proceed and look into the refinancing.” The resolution provides for the issuance of up to $33,960,000 in school im-
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Who knows what other rug can be pulled out from under us.
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Gov. John Kasich’s budget proposal to cut taxes on businesses and to expand the sales tax base presents a quandary for business organizations which can see benefits as well as disadvantages for their members. House Bill 59 lowers the rate of the state sales tax from 5.5 percent to 5 percent while expanding the state tax base to include most sales of services. Julie Feasel, a spokesperson for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber hasn’t yet taken a position on the tax proposals in the budget. “We are still reviewing the bill. Our tax committee met today to go through portions of the bill and we have other committees meeting over the next couple of weeks. Because the bill is over 4,200 pages, it might be a couple of weeks before any decision is made on what position, if any, we will take,” she said. Currently, the sale or use of services are exempt from taxation unless a particular service is expressly subject to the tax. The bill reverses that and instead requires the taxation of sales of services unless the sale is exempted, according to an analysis of the bill by the Legislative Service Commission. Services that will remain exempt include: • Medical and health care • Educational and tutoring • Real property construction • Lease or rental of a residence if the lessee occupies the dwelling for at least 30 days and the dwelling is his or her primary residence. • Adult and child day-care • Social assistance • Services used in the production of tangible property by mining • Residential trash pick-up and disposal at single-, two-, and three-family dwellings. • Funeral services • Transactions in which a consumer obtains insurance. • Services of an employer for workers. From Jan. 1 through June 30, 2012, about $4.3 billion in state and permissive
provement refunding bonds. “If the markets were to change in a manner that is no longer advantageous, obviously we won’t follow through,” said Fruth. “But this is the first step in the process.” Board member Jeff Ziviski said the resolution gives Fruth authorization to proceed with refinancing the debt. “This is the only motion the board has to make. If the numbers come in the way we want them to be, then we go forward with it,” said Ziviski. “This reduces the rate down to 1 percent for the first several years, then it goes up a percent every five years. But the highest rate it’s going to go is still lower than the highest rate we are going to pay under the current term. And
More money Also at the meeting, Fruth said in her treasurer’s report that the money the district will receive from Gov. John Kasich’s new school funding formula if the state’s two year budget is passed will not come close to making up the financial losses over the years. “Oregon is one of the districts that actually has good news from the budget. We will have increases. For 2014, it’s $1.9 million of increases. For 2015, it’s $2.3 million. The reason this is helping us so much is because it’s been at least four or five years the district has been on a formula. And in that time, I’m sure you’ve heard us talk about the loss of personal property taxes and all kinds of valuation. The bottom line, since 2006, our district has lost 34 percent of our valuation. So this is the first time we’ve received any relief from the state on this,” said Fruth.
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Read about the heroes living in the homes next to you. In these 50 short stories, Press columnist John Szozda tells the stories of common people who have met uncommon challenges with vision, courage, passion and determination. These men and women include the Genoa grandmother who helped
by John Szozda
the $158,000 savings per year is not out of the general fund, but the bond fund. I don’t want to get those two confused. Just because we’re authorizing this tonight doesn’t mean we’re doing it, but only gives Jane the opportunity to investigate it and make sure things go the way we want them to before we proceed.”
solve her daughter’s murder, the Polish-American boy who survived gruesome medical experiments during WWII and the woman, once a victim of fear, who fought back against crime and founded CrimeStoppers. The
For your copy of John Szozda’s book, send $15 to The Press, Box 169-J Millbury, OH 43447 or call 419-836-2221.
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