Additional $6M lets departments rebuild

Recorder Diana Marchese bucked the trend of budget increases.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- With nearly $6 million more to spend in 2006 than in 2005, many Trumbull County department heads will see their budgets funded at or above the level of 2004 --the last year before a budget crisis produced layoffs and cutbacks.
The additional revenue allows officials to set aside around $309,000 for computers and other technology purchases, a contingency fund of $500,000 and another $500,000 for 911, the public defender's office and mandatory costs for the Job and Family Services Department, county Administrator Tony Carson Jr. said.
County commissioners are expected to approve the $40.9 million 2006 budget today. The 2006 budget represents a 16.4 percent increase over the amount officials spent in 2005 -- a year when layoffs reduced spending by $2.5 million over 2004.
Since last fall, when revenue started to come in from two new quarter-percent sales taxes, department heads have been getting permission to rehire some of the staff that had been laid off earlier in the year. Among those were numerous deputy sheriffs and building maintenance workers.
What this means
The result is that the budget for the building maintenance department rises in 2006 from $1.1 million to $1.4 million, an increase of 24 percent. That is an increase of 11.5 percent over 2004 funding.
In the sheriff's department and jail, which will receive $8.4 million and combine to make up 20 percent of the county budget, the 2006 budget is essentially the same as the funding from 2004 but up 17.7 percent over 2005.
One department that did not see much increase is the recorder's office, which saw essentially no increase over 2005 expenditures and saw a 17 percent decrease compared with 2004, when the budget was $508,000.
Recorder Diana Marchese said her department was one that cut back during the budget crisis last year and is getting along well despite having four fewer employees than in 2004.
She knows the county has more money for this year, "but they are not flush," she said -- adding she was told she could come back later in the year and ask for additional staffing if necessary.
Marchese explained she typically returns money to the county each year. "I'm not going to fill my cabinets with supplies because I have the money. The commissioners have always been good in giving me the money when I needed it."
She added that her department is also fortunate in that it has new equipment and won't need much money for that in 2006.
In the works
Carson said he and Auditor Adrian Biviano have discussed creating a capital improvement fund that will be used to pay for such items as additional voting equipment costing around $200,000, and a heating unit and new roof at the Family Court for around $300,000. That capital improvement fund would be separate from the funds being approved for each department.
Carson said county employees have helped keep personnel costs low over the past four years. Union wages have generally increased by 56 cents per hour during that time, and union and management employees also started contributing $80 per month for a family health care plan in 2003.
Most union employees took a wage freeze the fourth year of the contract, and their contracts run out in August, Carson said.
runyan@vindy.com