MAHONING CO. Reduced 2002 budget approved

Officials want to trim an additional 5 percent to 6 percent off the budget for next year.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Administrator Gary Kubic might have used carving tools instead of a calculator to prepare the county's 2002 budget.
The $54.7 million in appropriations, approved Tuesday by county commissioners, is 6 percent less than last year's budget of $58.4 million, Kubic said. He does not expect the reduction to cause cuts in personnel.
Kubic issued notice that there'll be more of the same for next year, so officeholders had better find ways to either increase their revenue or decrease their expenditures.
Reason for cuts: The chronic cost-cutting is because of steadily declining revenue, brought on largely by lagging sales tax receipts, he said.
The county started this year with about a $7 million carryover from last year, Kubic said. That will be reduced to between $2 million and $3 million by the end of the year, and that's where Kubic would like to see it stay.
"We no longer want to rely on cash reserves to get by," he said, explaining why further reductions are coming.
Kubic said last year's budget was inflated by several one-time expenditures, like major capital improvements at the South Side Annex and the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center, and $500,000 to help get caught up with a backlog in the microfilm department.
Still, about half of county departments took a cut from what they were appropriated last year. The biggest hit was in operation of the county jail, which was funded at $8.9 million last year but $7.8 million this year.
The minimum-security jail was also cut by some $192,000, and the sheriff's department more than $52,000. The jail medical budget was increased by about $113,300.
Reactions: "We can live with it," Sheriff Randall Wellington said, noting that the department will restructure its jail staffing to cut down on overtime to help cut operating costs at the jails.
That's something Kubic said commissioners want to see implemented anyway.
Wellington said he'll also curb plans to buy new vehicles and won't fill all of the 14 vacancies he has on his staff. "We'll do what we have to do to get by," he said.
The juvenile court's budget was increased by about $227,000 over last year, even though Judge Theresa Dellick had asked for a $1 million increase to cover raises for her staff, expanding the probation department and other personnel changes.
She could not be reached to comment on the final budget figures.
Kubic said about $30.5 million of the overall budgeted amount goes toward personnel costs, which Commissioner Ed Reese said is not out of line. "You need good personnel to provide services," he said.
Human resources director J. Kevin Sellards said officials have held the line on personnel in the past year.
bjackson@vindy.com