TRUMBULL COUNTY Officials expected to OK budget for 2005

A commissioner no longer believes a quarter-percent tax would be enough.
WARREN -- The $32 million county budget that Trumbull County commissioners were to approve today, with a few changes, is pretty much what department heads had been expecting.
"I'd characterize it as slim pickings," said Daniel Polivka, board chairman.
Officials say the budget is about $6 million short of what's needed.
Whether the budget can carry departments through all of 2005 is an unanswered question. "That obviously depends on if there's additional revenue -- and that depends on the whole sales tax issue," said Commissioner Paul Heltzel.
Public hearings on an additional county sales tax will be at 10 a.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Tuesday. Both will be at the county administration building, 160 High St. N.W.
Heltzel said he no longer believes a quarter-percent tax would generate enough money.
A half-percent tax would be needed, he said, to address cuts of $1 million each in 2006 and 2007 that are forecast at the state level for local government funds. Also, the county has deferred maintenance and capital projects.
Imposing a tax would require a unanimous vote by commissioners. It could be subject to voter referendum if a petition effort were successful.
'Yo-yo effect'
Although a tax could be imposed for a continuing period of time, setting a time frame could make it more palatable to taxpayers, who could review county performance when its renewal comes due. "We've got to make that decision here. Is it five years or two years?" Heltzel said, conceding that on-and-off sales tax revenue creates a "yo-yo effect" for county operations.
Bearing the brunt of budget cuts will be the sheriff, treasurer, auditor, recorder and 911 center. Commissioners were to rescind 17 layoffs at 911 today because the townships have agreed to make some advance payments to the operation.
The county's elected officials and department heads knew this was coming based on two sets of budget hearings.
"The sheriff's department is the same as the preliminary budget was," Heltzel said. "The major impact is always going to be where the big dollars are. And where the big dollars are is the sheriff, the jail, the deputies."
Numbers these offices had been expecting are basically unchanged, Heltzel noted: Sheriff, from $8.4 million in 2004 to $5.4 million this year; auditor, $860,000 to $581,000; recorder, $508,334 to $332,736; treasurer, $862,000 to $580,036; 911 center, $2.1 million to $1.48 million.
Layoffs and cutbacks
Already, offices are making layoffs and cutting back on hours of operation, work days and supplies.
Sheriff Thomas Altiere already has cut about 60 employees.
The commissioners, in a move that the probate and common pleas judges could challenge with a court order, also agreed to hold court budgets to 2004 levels. Also at 2004 levels are the prosecutor's office and the elections board, although the elections board is asked to make insurance coverage changes to save $20,000.
The county already has a half-percent sales tax. In 2003, voters rejected making permanent another half-percent tax the county had been collecting for a year. This created the current budget crunch.
Commissioners James Tsagaris and Heltzel have voiced support for another tax; Polivka has said an additional tax should be an option of last resort.
Imposing the additional sales tax after the public hearings would bring some added income this year. Because collections are calculated quarterly, any new tax couldn't begin until July 1, with the money available in October. But it could mean an additional $2 million to $2.5 million for county government in the last quarter of the year, and $8 million over a full year.