News

‘Modest increase.’ SARTA to seek first sales tax increase since 1997

January 15, 2026

Robert Wang

Canton Repository

Updated Jan. 15, 2026, 3:15 p.m. ET

The Stark Area Regional Transit Authority plans to see its first sales tax increase since it became a countywide service. This file photo shows riders boarding a bus at the Cornerstone Transit Center.

This article has been updated to fix an inaccuracy. See correction below. 3:15 p.m. Jan. 15.

CANTON − The Stark Area Regional Transit Authority will seek its first sales tax increase since it became a countywide service more than 28 years ago.

SARTA’s board, in a unanimous voice vote on Jan. 14, approved a resolution to place the increase on the May 5 primary ballot. The issue would ask voters to boost the rate to 0.35% from 0.25% effective July 1.

Stark County’s overall sales tax rate is 6.5%, the lowest in Ohio, tied with Butler, Wayne and Lorain counties. In addition to the SARTA portion, the state’s share is 5.75%, and Stark County government’s criminal justice tax is 0.5%.

If voters approve the request for an increase, SARTA’s sales tax rate would rise to 6.6%. For every $1,000 in taxable purchases in Stark County, a consumer now pays $65. Under the proposed sales-tax increase, that would increase by $1 to $66.

SARTA sales tax first approved in 1997

After rejecting the issue twice, Stark County voters approved establishing the 0.25% sales tax in May 1997. It funded the expansion of what was the Canton Regional Transit Authority to a countywide service. Voters then renewed the tax in five-year and later 10-year periods.

SARTA’s current 10-year tax is set to end in June 2027. It currently generates about $19 million a year and is SARTA’s main source of revenue.

If the increase is approved, it would generate an estimated $27 million a year, SARTA Chief Financial Officer Joe Wayne said.

The 0.1% increase is the lowest increase by state law that SARTA can seek.

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Why ask for an increase?

SARTA’s interim CEO Ralph Lee laid out his agency’s arguments for the increase.

The average age of a SARTA bus is seven to nine years. He said the additional funding is needed to reduce that average to four to five years, so buses can be retired from service at 400,000 to 500,000 miles.

SARTA Director of Information Technology Craig Smith said SARTA is using buses until they reach 800,000 miles, and it costs the agency more in the long term in maintenance and for repairs than if they had replaced the bus.

Lee said SARTA needs more local matching dollars to obtain more grant dollars from the state and federal government. But SARTA also needs to become less reliant on federal grant funding because it’s not clear the future of transit funding from the federal government.

SARTA also wants to restore much of the ProLine ride-by-appointment service that was pared down in February due to budget cuts and layoffs, Lee said. The agency said it has no plans to increase the ProLine fare of $2.25 per ride for the people with disabilities that ProLine serves.

SARTA on Feb. 9 is also launching in the Canal Fulton area a pilot ride-share program called D2D or Destination to Destination that would cost $6 per ride.

The agency wants to start a limited Sunday service that could serve Belden Village, the Tuscarawas Street and Lincoln Way corridor from Canton to Massillon and perhaps a connection to Akron and Cleveland.

SARTA eliminated Sunday service in 2009 due to budget cuts.

Board President Ron Macala said he also believes that the Hall of Fame Village with a hotel and water park will become a tourist destination. And he sees SARTA providing key transit service for visitors to the Village when that happens.

“We’ve got to look at a year, two years, three years from now,” Macala said. “That’s why in my mind it’s imperative that we persuade the voting public in Stark County to give due consideration to what I consider a modest increase.”

‘Hard decision’

Margaret Egbert, who’s now a board member of SARTA, in 1997 led the door-to-door campaign for the sales tax when she was the director of the Canton YWCA.

“This was a hard decision (to ask for an increase) because we know everybody is struggling,” she said. “But we also know people who are struggling also need transportation.”

SARTA board member James Reinhard said he would like to see more specific estimates on how much money SARTA needs to fund restoring or expanding services.

Is the campaign ready?

SARTA board member Chris Nichols said he supported a sales tax increase. But he expressed concern that a pro-levy committee has barely enough time to launch a successful campaign or effectively counter attacks on a levy increase on social media.

Nichols is the director of management and budget for the Stark County commissioners and Canton Township’s fiscal officer.

Nichols noted that while it’s only a 0.1-percentage-point increase in the rate, it is a 40% increase in revenue. He said if voters reject the issue in May and SARTA seeks a sales tax renewal or sales tax increase in November 2026, it might be on the ballot at the same time as a statewide issue that could eliminate or significantly scale back property taxes in Ohio and attract a large turnout by voters opposed to tax increases.

If voters rejected a renewal or increase in November, then SARTA would face a levy issue on the May 2027 ballot that could decide if it continues to operate.

“The normal person on the street is whom you have to make this pitch to,” Nichols said. “It’s having that clear, consistent message. And again, this is a bit of an altruistic tax. Because 90% of the people who are probably voting for this never set foot on a SARTA bus. So we’re asking for that tax increase again on people who aren’t even using the service. Which means we really need to have a very clear, precise message.”

Latrice Virola, SARTA’s director of customer relations, said she’s helping coordinate fundraising for a pro-levy campaign that would be advised by ad firm Innis Maggiore.

“We know we have to pitch to people who don’t use the service,” she said. “So we’ve had conversations on how do you explain to people the importance of public transit in a community as a whole. And how it makes the community better. And not just for the people that ride it.”

Citizens for SARTA is holding a pro-levy campaign fundraiser at 5 p.m. Jan. 22 at the Culture Lounge at 331 Cleveland Ave. NW featuring Canton Mayor William Sherer II.

CORRECTION: SARTA says that it has no plans to increase the ProLine fare of $2.25 per ride. An earlier version of this article gave incorrect information about its future fare rates.

Reach Robert at [email protected].

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