Sales Tax Revenue Drops, Radio Funding in Jeopardy

Butler County (Ohio) commissioners are debating a plan to begin charging user agencies for the use of its $36 million 800 MHz trunked radio system, after annual maintenance funding from sales tax revenues has dried up. County commissioners voted to build the 800 MHz trunked radio system in 2007, and they also voted to fund the system from a one-quarter percent increase in sales tax revenues, instead of charging local agencies. But as the economy began to turn downward in 2007, sales tax revenues also declined, dropping eight percent from 2008 to 2009. Feeling the pinch, the county began deferring some of the $1.2 million in annual maintenance payments to Motorola. Now the county owes Motorola $2.1 million, which the county doesn’t have, forcing county commissioners to consider billing local agencies. Read more about the funding problems here.