Officials to submit '06 budget proposals

By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County officials, hopeful that 2006 will be a better year than this one, will submit budget proposals to the county commissioners starting Monday.
Strapped financially most of 2005, officials worked through lean times early in the year but started to get additional cash in the fall when two new quarter-percent sales taxes started to produce revenue.
In the end, the county's budget was adjusted up to $35.6 million -- about $2 million less than in 2004, the last time the county had the same amount of sales tax revenue as now. In 2006 the county should have around $38 million to spend, said Adrian Biviano, the deputy Trumbull County auditor.
He said factors that will affect that in the next few months are car sales figures, which appear to be down in recent months, and the outcome of negotiations with Delphi Packard Electric and that impact on county revenue.
Lean budget
Commissioner Paul Heltzel said the budget was lean early in the year because the county was operating on a $32 million budget. "It's clearly going to be better [in 2006] than it was last year," he said.
One indication that the budget will be higher than $32 million in 2006 is the amount, primarily for the sheriff, that was overspent on salaries this year. When sales tax money started to arrive this fall, $2 million of it was earmarked to pay salaries for the sheriff's department in excess of its budget.
At about the same time, jail staffing was increased to allow the jail to reopen a wing of the facility that had been shut down for many months.
This week, commissioners gave permission to Sheriff Thomas L. Altiere to bring back deputies from layoff to resume a road patrol in unincorporated areas of the county. Plans are also in the works to replace six patrol cars for them to use.
Heltzel said those deputies are supposed to be back on the job in time to provide protection during the holidays.
Savings account
Heltzel said two of the most important things that will happen because of the restored revenue will be to create a capital improvement budget and a contingency fund -- what Heltzel called "our savings account." He said the county had neither in 2005.
The capital improvement fund will address issues such as new computers, sheriff department radios and repairs at buildings such as the board of elections, dog kennel and maintenance building, he said.
Heltzel said some departments reduced staffing during the budget crunch and will not need to replace all of those workers, but some will be trying to get back to former levels. He said the funding for 2006 should be enough "to come close to fully funding the departments."
runyan@vindy.com