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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > December > 02
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Dillingham charged with passing bad checks - again
A one-time Butler County commission candidate and former Hamilton bar owner is in legal trouble again.
Rawnica Dillingham-Ruscigno was arrested Nov. 25 on charges of passing bad checks, according to Fairfield police records.
She faces two misdemeanor counts in Fairfield Municipal Court for allegedly writing fraudulent checks totaling $619.46 to Gordon Food Service in Fairfield.
The warrant request was filed in municipal court by the company on Nov. 2. They allege the bad checks were used to purchase goods on May 11 and May 15.
Dillingham-Ruscigno is scheduled for a hearing before Judge Joyce Campbell on Dec. 9.
This is Dillingham-Ruscigno’s third arrest on charges of passing bad checks. During her campaign for county commission culminating in a lost Republican primary last year, it was revealed she was arrested for passing bad checks in 1999 and 2000.
More recently, Dillingham-Ruscigno was arrested in February as owner of V’s Nightclub on charges of violating Hamilton’s adult entertainment ordinance for a risqué performance she allowed at the bar. She pleaded guilty in September to amended charges.
The bar, on Millville Avenue in Hamilton, has since changed its name back to Dottie’s Bar and Grille — its name before Dillingham-Ruscigno and her husband bought the business. The company’s social networking sites say it has reopened under the “original ownership.”
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Crime and courts
Should sales tax hike be on table as county struggles with budget?
“Between a rock and a hard place.” “Catch-22.” “No win situation.”
These are the phrases Butler County Commissioner Gregory Jolivette used when asked whether the county was seriously considering raising sales tax to bolster its recession-battered budget.
The question came at a breakfast meeting with all local chambers of commerce this morning, Dec. 2. All three commissioners attended the event at Tori’s Station in Fairfield.
The answer: Two of three commissioners wouldn’t rule out a sales tax hike, but only as a last resort.
“I’m open for discussion on this issue, even though it could be very detrimental to my political future,” said Jolivette, who faces a tough re-election race next year.
“It would be irresponsible to say you definitely wouldn’t raise taxes,” said Commissioner Charles Furmon.
Commission President Donald Dixon disagreed, saying any increased revenues would “just get lost in a big, black hole,”
“Quite frankly, I think our spending has been out of control,” he said.
Jolivette and Furmon both argued that the county’s books have been well tended, and they were on the way to building massive reserves with one of the lowest sales taxes in the state until the bottom fell out because of recession.
They made it clear they prefer cuts as well, and would only consider a tax hike as opposed to declaring fiscal emergency and having the state take over the county’s books.
Facing a $6.6 million projected budget deficit next year, commissioners said the other alternatives aren’t very appealing: drastically reducing services, and — in Jolivette’s case — pushing for cuts to the sheriff, prosecutor and courts that could leave him open to criticisms of being soft on crime.
“I think (raising) the sales tax is one of the last things anyone wants to do,” Furmon said. “But it’s incumbent upon us to provide the services (and) if it has to be at the end of the day, I think we’ll have to look at it.”
With a sales tax of 6.25 percent, Butler County is tied with two other counties for having the lowest sales tax in the state. But Jolivette said this isn’t the economic boon it should be.
“Do we get credit for having the lowest sales tax rate?” he said. “They don’t think about that when they go to Cincinnati to shop, or up north where it’s 7 percent.”
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: County Commission, County budget
