In simple English, this is how it works.
Massillon has a 1.8% income tax. Currently, if you live in Massillon, and work in Canton, which has a 2% income tax, you pay 2% to Canton and nothing to Massillon, where you live.
If the tax credit is reduced to 50%, and you live in Massillon, and work in another city that has an income tax, you would pay half the Massillon income tax, which would be less than 1%, instead of the zero percent (that's zero with a 'z') that you pay now.
It was Jayne Ferrero's plan.
It was Jayne Ferrero's idea.
And she wanted then mayor elect, Kathy Catazaro-Perry, to support her plan;
"She (Kathy Catazaro-Perry) said she met Friday with Auditor Jayne Ferrero to further discuss the city’s finances ahead of taking office next year. According to Catazaro-Perry, Ferrero told her, “We really need that tax credit,” and so she (Catazaro-Perry) agreed to give her verbal approval so that it could at least be discussed. But then she was told that fellow Finance Committee member David Hersher removed his signature. (The Independent, November 22, 2011).
And then, Jayne Ferrero fell silent.
And she didn't even show up at the Massillon City Council meeting on November 21st when her plan was debated by city council.
But another Ferrero did come to council that night.
Her Brother in Law, Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero, and his chief counsel, John Kurtzman came to visit Massillon City Council.
Who, according to reports, came to make known their opposition.
Coincidentally, neither Prosecutor Ferrero, nor chief counsel Kurtzman, currently pay any city income tax, despite them both living in the city.
The 50% reduction in the tax credit would cost them personally.
And now, as the Massillon Review Hypocrisy Early Warning System has red lined, and Kathy Catazaro-Perry is pushing a reduction in the tax credit, as originally proposed by Jayne Ferrero, Jayne Ferrero doesn't have an opinion.
"Ferrero, whose decision to use $3 million dollars of available revenue to pay past due bills rankled Catazaro-Perry, says she has no opinion on the latest tax credit proposal" (The Independent, February 13, 2012).
Ferrero now "has no opinion."
She used to have an opinion.
The tax credit reduction was a good idea.
Before her Brother in Law had an opinion.
That it was a bad idea.
So now Jayne Ferrero has no opinion.
Or, apparently, no convictions.
