MANSFIELD, Ohio — The Richland County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved increasing the county sales tax by 0.25 percent for 12 months beginning July 1.
Richland County’s sales tax will increase from 7 percent to 7.25 percent to help pay for general operations. The tax is estimated to generate about $3 million.
Commissioner Gary Utt noted in a previous meeting, “When we worked on the budget, we came to the conclusion that we were not going to have enough money to make it through the year without implementing an emergency sales tax.”
Commissioner Marilyn John had previously said, “None of us wanted to do this; however, again, there was a $6 million difference between the requests and the certification.”
The total amount of requests submitted by Richland County departments for 2015 were $33,379,661.35 with a revenue certification from the Budget Commission of $27,300,318.45 and a difference of $6,079,342.90.
Commissioners approved $27,291,612.86 in general fund appropriations, $5,115,822 in Richland County Jail fund appropriations and $752,043.70 in Richland County Community Alternative Center fund appropriations.
Fifty of Ohio’s 88 counties have a sales tax of 7.25 percent; Franklin County has a sales tax of 7.50 percent, and Cuyahoga County has an 8 percent sales tax. Recently Hamilton, Lucas and Mahoning counties also increased their county sales tax by 0.25 percent.
