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... State law allows a county to impose a tax of up to 4.5 cents per pack of cigarettes for building a sports facility, according to Gary Gudmundson, spokesman for ...

AKRON - A developer wants to bypass voters for a proposed cigarette tax that would help pay for a soccer stadium intended to attract a Major League Soccer expansion team.Gov. Bob Taft, House Speaker Jon Husted and Senate President Bill Harris have agreed to consider a request by the developer to allow Summit County to impose the tax instead of taking the issue to county voters, said Tasha Hamilton, Husted's spokeswoman.

Paul Garofolo, president and chief executive officer of Wolstein Sports & Entertainment Group LLC, released plans last week for a $327 million development project on 450 acres straddling Northfield Center Township and Macedonia, about 20 miles south of Cleveland.  The project includes a retail village and a multipurpose, retractable-roof stadium, which would host concerts and could be used by an MLS expansion team, the group says.

The stadium would seat 20,000 to 25,000 people and cost $110 million to $165 million.The Columbus Crew is the league's only franchise in Ohio.The Wolstein Group previously owned and operated the indoor soccer Cleveland Force.Crew general manager Mark McCullers said he doesn't feel threatened by the possibility of competition from another Ohio team.

"This league needs to increase its footprint across the country and Cleveland is a major media market," McCullers said. "New ownership and their investment in a new stadium are in the best interest of the league. There's no question about that."State law allows a county to impose a tax of up to 4.5 cents per pack of cigarettes for building a sports facility, according to Gary Gudmundson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Taxation.Such a tax would generate about $7 million per year for the project, said Garofolo, whose group would contribute $100 million toward the stadium and shopping district.

Northfield Center Township Trustee Paul Buescher said it would be wrong to impose a tax on citizens without their vote.But Summit County Councilman Nick Konstandaras, whose district includes the proposed development site, said he supports the idea because the revenue that the project would generate would far outweigh the taxes smokers would pay.