WARREN - Trumbull County voters on Tuesday will decide if road and bridge improvements around the county are worth paying up to $10 more in license registration fees.

Highway Engineer David DeChristofaro said the local money - about $1.2 million - can be leveraged against state and federal money to make about $8 million a year for improvements.

''Trumbull County needs local matching funds in order to get federal and state grants for roads and bridges,'' DeChristofaro said. ''Without the local matching funds, we cannot get these grants, we can't keep up repairing our roads and bridges.''

Ken MacPherson of the Trumbull County Campaign for Liberty said residents pay enough taxes associated with their vehicles, from the gasoline tax to recently increased fees by Ohio for vision screenings, temporary tags and other registration fees.

''What we have is a system of evil begetting evil,'' MacPherson said. ''Billions in taxes paid, now yet another tax to go beg for the money that we've already paid.''

Two separate $5 increases will be on the general election ballot.

DeChristofaro said residents in Niles, Warren and Newton Falls wouldn't pay extra.

But this is where it might get confusing, DeChristofaro said.

Residents of Cortland, Girard, McDonald and West Farmington would pay an extra $5 only if the second measure passes. If the first measure passes, they wouldn't be required to pay because they already pay that fee.

In the remaining communities, there are none with the type of fee being proposed by DeChristofaro. They do, however, have a $5 fee they are allowed to impose just for their jurisdiction. Those communities are Champion, Hubbard, Liberty, Newton and Weathersfield townships.

Ohio law allows for a maximum of four $5 fees to be placed on license plates. Three are reserved for counties, and one is reserved for municipalities or townships.

Trumbull County ranks 10th among Ohio's 88 counties for deficient bridge decks, and according to the federal highway rating system, 27 percent of bridges need to be replaced compared to 11 percent of Ohio's remaining 87 counties, DeChristofaro said.

Additionally, Trumbull isn't among 14 northeast Ohio counties with similar fees, and among the 12 largest counties by population in Ohio, all but Trumbull have the fee, DeChristofaro said.

''It's been nice that we haven't had this tax for 42 years, like some have had, but now we're paying the price,'' DeChristofaro said.

MacPherson said buying back tax dollars with local matches is a broken system that would be continued if this tax is approved.

''I'm not against the tax really. The system is broken, and by participating in it, we're perpetuating a broken system,'' MacPherson said. ''We shouldn't have to overly tax ourselves so we can get money we've already paid tax on.''

MacPherson said about 30 people will be at the polls across Trumbull County with signs and literature on the plate fee and on statewide Issues 1, 2 and 3, which they will be encouraging voters to vote down.

DeChristofaro said he didn't create the system, but is trying to work within it.

''Right now, if you want to get that money back for projects, you have to put up 20 percent to get that 80 percent back,'' he said. ''We're not getting our money back right now. Trumbull County is a donor county; we don't get the money back that we put in.

''This is another way of getting our tax dollars back in Trumbull County,'' DeChristofaro said.

DeChristofaro has acknowledged that road repairs still would be done without the additional money. About $500,000 a year is set aside to leverage against state and federal grants, which account for most of the project funding, he said. Combined, about $2 million a year is available, he said.

At that pace, he said, it would take more than 200 years to rebuild the county's 381 bridges and 90 years to repair the road system.

rselak@tribtoday.com