COUNTY FINANCES Some offices will run out of money, Tablack says

The county's financial problems will be around for a while, the auditor said.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Auditor George J. Tablack said he is going to stop issuing paychecks for some departments before the end of the year because they will run out of money.
The auditor spoke Wednesday to give a further overview of the county's dire financial straits. The bottom line: Things are bleak.
"The only light at the end of the tunnel is the train coming the other way," Tablack said.
The county has appropriated its entire $39.9 million budget for this year. The county budget commission can only increase the amount the county can spend if more funds come in. By law, counties cannot be involved in deficit spending.
Tablack said he can't and won't process a check to pay a county employee if there is no money in the worker's department pay account. Some departments will run out of money in the summer.
That is why commissioners have asked department heads to begin layoff procedures now, before that happens.
'Still in denial'
Tablack had urged the outgoing board of commissioners last year to pass a full-year 2005 budget in December to lessen the financial blow the county is now experiencing.
The commissioners only appropriated the funds to elected officeholders. It is up to those officeholders to run their departments as they see fit with the funds they have received.
And that's the rub, Tablack said.
Although some layoffs have occurred, and others are expected later this month, some officeholders are still waiting to make that move, and others have come to the commissioners asking for more money.
"Some departments are still in denial" about the county's fiscal problem, the county auditor said. "Some parties seem to believe that the $14 million in lost revenue should be made up on someone else's back."
He was referring to the loss of the half-percent sales tax that expired in December 2004. The tax brought in that amount, but voters twice rejected its renewal last year.
Commissioners have asked county residents to give them a chance to right the ship by putting the sales tax back on the ballot for the May primary. It would be for five years.
But Tablack points out that even if the sales tax passes, statutory restrictions on its collection means Mahoning wouldn't get its first check until January 2006.
"My biggest fear is that the public and the media will say that if the tax passes, all is well. That's not the case," he said.
Also expiring
The county's second half-percent sales tax, which also generates $14 million, expires in 2007, and county officials will have to make sure they do all they can to get it renewed.
The financial picture is further muddled by a pending ruling by a federal judge on the county jail's continued operation; possible lawsuits for more funding coming from the elections board and the clerk of courts office; and the possible order from the common pleas court to grant its full budget request.
Tablack said until all those contingencies play out, it's impossible for commissioners to provide a financial forecast to the state auditor's office.
Such a forecast is necessary to determine if the county will go into state fiscal emergency or fiscal watch.
"Ohio law never contemplated this kind of change in financial condition since the fiscal watch and fiscal emergency laws were crafted," Tablack said.
He said he, commissioners, the prosecutor and the state auditor's office need to get together in the next few weeks to go over the county's fiscal condition.
Despite the dismal outlook, Tablack said there are several county employees in every office either working late or coming in early to make sure county business doesn't suffer further.
Workers in the auditor's and treasurer's offices have worked to 6:30 or 7 p.m. to make sure school districts get their advances on property tax money on time so school officials don't have to borrow money to meet their payrolls, Tablack said.
He said Mahoning County is a $300 million corporation, but the corporation is in bad shape, and every officeholder needs to help make it healthy again.