Officials post revenue, spending charts online

An official said the county is being transparent about its revenue and spending.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County has posted pie charts of its 2006 revenue and spending on the Internet.
Auditor Nancy Milliken announced Tuesday that the charts were available on her office Web site: www.columbianacntyauditor.org/.
The revenue chart lists each statutory revenue source and its percentage of the county's income through February. The spending chart shows each statutory spending source or cost, and its percentage. The information will be updated monthly.
Milliken said the information will answer questions citizens have raised about the county sales tax, income in general and spending.
John Goempel, Milliken's chief deputy, said the pie charts were better than spread sheets to explain the county's finances.
"A pie chart is highly visible," Goempel said. "It shows people how spending is going."
Goempel said he did not know of any other county that had posted such charts online.
Sales tax
The commissioners have placed a 0.5 percent sales tax on the May ballot that should bring in about $4 million a year. Voters rejected the tax last year. Milliken had prepared similar charts for public hearings last year on the 0.5 percent sales tax.
The auditor's site does not make a pitch for the sales tax.
Goempel said the charts will show the public all the things that the government must pay for. He estimated that 80 percent of all county spending is ultimately part of the criminal justice system.
The charts are also something of a civics lesson. The board of elections so far has spent 2 percent of all county revenue, but housing prisoners has cost 13 percent. The county has also spent 19 percent of its revenue on health insurance, which is handled by the auditor and commissioners for all workers, not by each office.
County officials said they will also have to be careful when they explain the charts and the need for the 0.5 percent sales tax to voters. The charts show that income tops expenses so far this year by $290,464. But the commissioners have said that the 1 percent sales tax is down by 11 percent over the same time last year, which is not reflected in the charts.
The commissioners estimate that without the extra sales tax, the county will have $1.5 million in debts at the end of 2006.