“We’ve got to protect our clients,” he said. “I can’t sleep at night thinking about that scenario (cuts). How did a proud county come to this? It’s a situation that’s going to be a nightmare” (The Independent, October 29, 2011).
Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero was a busy man last fall.
He was busy campaigning to raise the county sales tax.
He couldn't "sleep at night" thinking about how his office would run without a tax increase.
But Ferrero wasn't the only one in his office pitching an increase in the county sales tax.
"John L. Kurtzman, chief counsel for the Stark County Prosecutor’s Office, told (Tuscarawas Township) trustees that Sheriff Timothy Swanson will hire back deputies if the tax passes and that some would be assigned to road patrol."
"Kurtzman, like many other county officials, encouraged trustees to pass a resolution of support. He highlighted several points regarding the tax, including that 30 percent of it will be paid by visitors to the county. The tax issue will appear as Issue 29 on the ballot" (The Independent, October 12, 2011).
Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero, and his Chief Counsel, John Kurtzman, are both Massillonians.
They live in town with the rest of us.
And they were both campaigning for the passage of a county sales tax.
Which provides funding to the government office where they work.
John Ferrero was the former Massillon Law Director before becoming city prosecutor.
John Ferrero and John Kurtzman were also well known loyal aides de camp for our beloved former mayor for life, and chief architects of the Cicchinelli regime.
And in October last year they were pushing a tax.
For Stark County.
Because the Prosecutor's office where they work needed the money.
But they don't like all taxes.
Now, as John Ferrero and John Kurtzman live in Massillon, but work in Canton, they pay a 2% income tax to the City of Canton, where they work, and a 0% income tax to the City of Massillon, where they live.
Prosecutor Ferrero's sister in law, Massillon City Auditor Jayne Ferrero, was going to change all that.
Because she was a woman with a plan.
A plan to reduce Massillon's 100% income tax credit to 50%, meaning that if you worked in another city and paid their income tax, you would still have to pay something to Massillon, the city where you live.
In this case you would pay .9%, or half of Massillon's 1.8%.
Auditor Ferrero estimated her plan would raise $1.5 million dollars for cash strapped Massillon.
She could then pay the city's delinquent bills. Bills like dispatching, asphalt, gas for the police cruisers, and road salt for winter driving.
Auditor Jayne Ferrero probably couldn't "sleep at night" worrying about all the delinquent bills her beloved former mayor racked up on the city's proverbial credit card.
Her brother in law, Prosecutor John Ferrero, thought this to be a bad idea.
So bad, he and his Chief Counsel, John Kurtzman, came to the November 21st Massillon City Council meeting where the tax credit reduction plan was to be discussed.
And, according to numerous Massillon Review sources and faithful readers, they were opposed to the reduction of the tax credit.
And threatened to organize a repeal of the tax credit reduction if council passed it.
Because it was such a bad idea.
Perhaps it was a bad idea because Prosecutor Ferrero and Chief Counsel Kurtzman, who pay 0% (that's zero with a "z") income tax to the city of Massillon from their county wages, don't want to pay any Massillon income tax.
They did, however, want the rest of us to pay more sales tax to fund things like the Stark County Prosecutor's office, where they both work.
And ever since, coincidentally, Auditor Ferrero hasn't mentioned her once good idea.
And didn't even attend the November 21st council meeting to defend her plan.
Where former councilman David Hersher "forgot" he signed the ordinance to bring the tax credit reduction out of the finance committee and up for a vote, claiming he signed it as an accident, and then removing his signature, while claiming there were no 'Shenanigans.'
Oh, one thing we probably all can be sure of.
There will always be plenty of shenanigans.
