Commissioners approve budget

Allocations may not help departments expand, but they shouldn't force layoffs.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- By making full-year appropriations to departments for 2006, Mahoning County commissioners are trying to tell officeholders to "grow into your budgets," Commissioner Chairman Anthony T. Traficanti says.
Commissioners approved general fund allotments totaling $51.9 million Thursday, and Traficanti said they will "take a snapshot at midyear" to determine if more money will be available later.
It was a far cry from the 2005 budgeting process, when commissioners doled out $39.9 million after the loss of a 0.5 percent county sales tax that expired one year ago. Department budgets were slashed, and employees were laid off before voters approved a new five-year, 0.5 percent sales tax last May.
That tax, which generates about $14 million annually for the general fund, will "provide a smoothing effect" on county revenues for the next five years, budget director George J. Tablack said.
Aiming to be fair
Budget requests for 2006 exceeded revenues by about $6 million. While commissioners crunched numbers Wednesday, they wanted "to make sure no one department took the hit," Commissioner David Ludt said.
"I think it was a very fair budget for most, if not all, departments," Commissioner John McNally IV said.
Some departments were given exactly what their leaders sought. Other departments received less than what was asked for but more than what they had in 2005.
"I'm grateful we aren't losing anything," Sheriff Randall A. Wellington said. "In the past three years our budget has been decreased, so I wasn't too optimistic" about the latest request.
With $13.08 million for next year, "I think we'll just be able to maintain current staffing and operations," Wellington said. That means half of the jail will remain closed as the county responds to directives of U.S. District Court Judge David D. Dowd Jr., who found the facility to be overcrowded, understaffed and unconstitutional after inmates won a federal lawsuit last spring.
Wellington had asked for $16.3 million next year to maintain status quo or $17.6 million to fully operate the jail. His 2006 budget is about the same amount of money his department eventually received this year. The sheriff had been allocated $7.9 million before Judge Dowd's involvement. The county took out a tax anticipation loan in order to better fund the jail while addressing the judge's concerns.
Wellington expects increased costs for workers' compensation premiums and utilities that will need to be worked out later, he said.
Reason for optimism
With county sales tax receipts increasing and a real estate re-evaluation that will boost tax collections, the outlook may improve later in the year, and that is reason to be optimistic, Wellington said.
Common Pleas Judge James C. Evans, who will be administrative judge of common pleas court in 2006, said the court's budget of $2.25 million is about $450,000 less than what was requested. "We'll probably end up in a position of having to go back and talk again" with commissioners, Judge Evans said, adding that the judges want to cooperate.
The budget request included money to hire more magistrates and personnel to assist magistrates in order to reduce the court's criminal and civil caseload. Those plans are in question at this point, Judge Evans said.
County courts in Boardman, Austintown, Canfield and Sebring received what they asked for because they made compelling cases for their needs, Traficanti said.
Avoiding a nightmare
The commissioners' administration fund, which covers state-mandated expenses and funding for revenue-sharing projects, was cut from $5.989 million this year to $4.792 million next year. That's a "catch-all category for a bunch of items," McNally said, so the reduction shouldn't affect county operations.
Treasurer John Reardon said his budget of $692,000 next year won't allow him to hire additional workers or replace others who left, but he also won't have to cut jobs as he did this year. That means some programs, including the Tax Installment Program, will be reinstated, and he will maintain employee levels so the department doesn't fall behind in collections and issuing money to school districts.
Traficanti and Ludt are happy that a projected $9 million deficit was avoided.
"It certainly would have been a tremendous nightmare" to balance a budget with a $42 million certificate of resources, Traficanti said. That was Auditor Michael V. Sciortino's forecast in November, based on preliminary figures.
Traficanti, Ludt and Tablack asked the county Budget Commission to re-examine figures before issuing a certificate of resources, which it did on Wednesday.
shaulis@vindy.com