By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LIBERTY TWP. - On the eve of a crucial vote on a proposed expressway interchange, township trustees took the first steps Wednesday toward forming a joint economic development district with Mason to raise funds to improve affected roads.

Liberty Township also could enter into similar agreements with Hamilton and Monroe, according to a letter of intent trustees unanimously voted to send to Mason City Council.

The district, called a JEDD, is a way to generate revenue to pay for secondary road improvements that will be necessary even if the proposed full interchange in Liberty Township off the Michael A. Fox Highway at Interstate 75 isn't approved.

Possible projects include extension of Cox Road to Ohio 63 and improvements to Butler-Warren, Tylersville and Bethany roads.

Under the JEDD agreements, earnings taxes from commercial developments and businesses in a prescribed geographic area are used for roads and other infrastructure improvements. The agreement must involve a municipality and a township.

It wasn't certain Wednesday where Liberty leaders would impose the earnings tax if they do enter into a formal JEDD agreement - either on existing businesses, new ones expected near the new interchange if it is built or both.

Butler County Commissioner Mike Fox, who proposed the JEDD, said owners of at least three undeveloped parcels of land in Liberty Township next to the Fox Highway have told him they would join a JEDD.

But he also said he thinks it would be a good idea to impose the earnings tax on existing businesses in the township's main commercial corridor at the Fox Highway and Cincinnati-Dayton Road - and perhaps other areas needing road improvements.

Workers at Liberty's businesses along Cincinnati-Dayton Road balked Wednesday at that notion.

"This is a money town the way it is now," complained Debbie Spangler, a stylist at Bo Rics Hair Care in the Liberty Towne Centre. "How much more are they going to tax people? It's getting ridiculous. We pay enough in property taxes."

But the township doesn't have to take the issue to a public vote if a majority of affected property owners approve entering a JEDD, said Gary Sheets, an attorney for Butler County commissioners.

"Nobody likes an earnings tax," Liberty Trustee President David Kern conceded Wednesday.

"We have not had a chance to define the (JEDD) boundaries yet, but obviously, (the public's) thoughts will be taken into consideration as this process continues," he said.

Liberty Township trustees held the special meeting Wednesday to get the letter to Mason in time for a key vote today.

Members of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments will vote whether to place the interchange on a long-range transportation project plan list at a 12:30 p.m. meeting at their Queensgate headquarters.

The interchange must go on that list before state and federal transportation officials will approve it.

OKI's Warren County representative, Commissioner Larry Crisenbery, has said he needed the letter by today in order to vote for the project.

Mr. Fox said he is confident that enough OKI members will vote to place the project on the list.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.