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Liberty Township: No JEDD with Youngstown
LIBERTY — The township trustees made it clear that they do not want to engage in a Joint Economic Development District with the city of Youngstown, even after the city’s Board of Control presented what it thought was a tempting proposal.
Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams was present at the trustees’ meeting tonight and stated in his opening remarks that if Liberty is doing well, then Youngstown benefits.
“There is an opportunity for us to keep working together even across county lines,” said Williams of the possibility of the JEDD coming to fruition.
David Bozanich, the city’s finance director, said Youngstown’s proposal was truly mutual and something both parties could endorse.
The JEDD would involve a 2 percent income tax — but only on new jobs — and a specific fund for economic development in Liberty and Youngstown. The JEDD board would consist of two Liberty representatives and two Youngstown representatives.
“No way we could out-vote you, no way you could out-vote us,” said Bozanich of the 50-50 split on the board.
For the complete story, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com
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Comments
The time is now, the JEDD will be good for Liberty and Youngstown. The long term benefits of the JEDD and working together are an asset to the VALLEY and all concerned.
This area is never going to move forward...
NO JEDDS! You want to "move forward"? Form an alliance of what is GOOD in the valley - then, if you want to move further forward, invite what is BAD to come over to the GOOD side. This whole idea of "we've ruined everything of our own we possibly can so let's now leech off of all of our neighbors" cannot be tolerated. Y'town is like a cancerous octopus lashing out in all directions, but has nothing to bring to the table that is GOOD. If Y'town doesn't want to play up to the level of everyone else instead of dragging everyone else down to it's pits, then the only good that can be achieved is GOOD RIDDANCE!
INCORPORATE NOW! Austintown and Boardman can very easily become thier own cities. Canfield city and township can merge together. Liberty and Girard? It's not so far fetched, and surely a much better idea than Liberty getting leeched by Y'town. Let's see this a step further... Howland and Niles - heck, Niles could get together with Howland, Weathersfield, McDonald, etc... and form the NEW and FUTURE SEAT of Trumbull County!
Come on people - enough of this bullying by Jay and Mike.
THis is misleading I watched the news and the township officials said they were interested in a JEDD on undeveloped property, just not the existing businesses.
For the hundreth time, Youngstown is predicting a budget shortfall equivalent to the amount they are attempting to bleed from surrounding communities. The city admitted that they need to make an additional $4m or lose 60 people. Lose the 60 people like Boardman lost its 30.
Got to agree with Grump, if you are having revenue issues Youngstown, then address them internally. Don't try and blackmail the surrounding communities to make up for your own poor management. The city council was all to happy to spend the 25 million to build that white elephant centre and now it's another noose around your neck.
Make up the budget shortfall just like the rest of us have to. Either layoffs or wage and benefit cuts.
Thats right. Leave Boardman and Austintown alone. Let them become their own city. Shut the water off. Let THEM raise taxes to provide their own water. Boardman has safety forces layed off right now and crying about money. Remember a few years ago, Austintown was also moaning about raising their taxes. Thats right Jay, leave them alone. Very Alone!
The whole idea of JEDDS is to raise money to further economic development. That's what Youngstown is proposing: for communities to work together to lift up the entire area. Youngstown is getting a bad rap on the LIberty JEDDS. Liberty approached the city about doing a JEDD and not the other way around. This area will never grow unless communities start working together. And it does work. Just check out what's been going on in the Akron area. There is economic growth there because of JEDDS and other factors mostly evolving around collaboration among communities.
tookie you can not compare Akron to Youngstown. That is like comparing apples and oragnes. I do believe that Youngstown needs to lay people off to make up for their shortfall. So many places and people are looking for money, youngstown with Jay and their schools, austintown schools, I mean with very thing else so expensive where do they expect us to pull the money from? They need to find other alternatives to fund what it is they are looking to do!
Tookie, JEDDs are supposed to develop new businesses on undeveloped land. Not much of that left in Austintown, and even less in Boardman. What Jay Williams wants isn't to create a Joint Economic Development District - what he wants is to grab money from already-existing businesses.
He can't raise the surcharge any higher (he can, but it won't do him any good!) because the Youngstown Water Department is already fully self-supporting with the 40% extra the suburbs pay. And the law reads that the water department income can only be used by the water department. The city has withdrawn any General Fund money going to the water department a long time ago. So they're at their max already. This is one reason Jay Williams was willing to drop (but not eliminate) the suburbs' surcharge - the windfall he'd get right now would cover it, and with the surcharge being lowered, when this money runs out they have the means to generate MORE money - simply raise the surcharge back up to 40% again! And there'd be nothing the suburbs could do about it. The suburbs are right to be skeptical. That JEDD proposal was so one-sided it would have been laughable if there was no underlying threat of annexation.