Columbiana Co. officials: ’08 spending to be tight

Officials have asked for about $3 million more than the county will have.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

LISBON — Revenue is up now, but Columbiana County’s spending will still be tight next year.

Commissioner Jim Hoppel said Wednesday that the commissioners hope to make appropriations for all of 2008 by the end of this year.

Spending will be tight, because officeholders have asked for about $3 million more next year that the county won’t have, he said.

The 2008 budget is expected to be about $3 million more than this year. The estimated spending is expected to be about $18 million. The officeholders’ requests total $21 million.

In the past when cash was scarce, the commissioners often passed temporary spending measures for up to three months while they debated funding to individual offices, and then made final appropriations. That made extra work by having to enter spending figures into the county computer system twice.

Hoppel and county Auditor Nancy Milliken hope to get the full appropriations approved and into the computer system by mid-December. Milliken said the county may not reach its estimated revenue for this year until then.

The commissioners earlier this year enacted a 0.5 percent sales tax that should bring in about $4 million in a full year. The commissioners also collect a 1 percent sales tax that brings in about $8 million a year.

Hoppel said revenue from the taxes is ahead of estimates.

While the county should have received about 91 percent of its estimated revenue from the 0.5 percent sales, it’s actually received 94 percent.

The county also should have received 83 percent of the 1 percent sales tax, but it has collected 88 percent of its estimated revenue.

Still, the county isn’t expecting a windfall. Hoppel said the sales tax collections in the county may change slightly, but they don’t rise or fall as much as in other counties.

wilkinson@vindy.com