43
Commissioners approve temporary spending plan
Financial uncertainty spawned the temporary budget.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County commissioners have approved a $16,117,448 temporary general fund budget for the first quarter of 2009.
On Tuesday, the commissioners adopted the temporary budget, rather than a permanent full-year budget, because of uncertainty as to how many revenue-producing federal prisoners will inhabit the county jail in the new year, said George J. Tablack, county administrator.
County officials are concerned about the prospect of a direct federal contract with Corrections Corp. of America to house federal inmates at CCA’s private prison on Hubbard Road. County officials fear such a contract could reduce the number of federal inmates in the county jail.
As of Dec. 3, the county had spent $62.5 million from its general fund so far this year, Tablack has said. The county’s budget commission projects general fund revenue at $59 million in 2009.
At Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting, Tablack estimated about $5 million in unspent money in the general fund would carry over into 2009. The general fund is the county’s main operating fund.
Tablack said the first-quarter 2009 allocations to the county departments took into account their 2008 spending, but they have been adjusted according to such things as reduced financial need at the board of elections in a nonpresidential election year.
“I think they did do the right thing,” County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino said of the commissioners’ approval of a temporary budget.
“Typically, our carryovers range anywhere from $6 million to $8 million. This year, however, we’re looking at anywhere from $4 million to $6 million,” Sciortino said.
The county’s interest income is down, and sales tax receipts may have dropped somewhat, Sciortino explained. “It’s been a tough year. Real estate conveyances are down,” and, therefore, the county’s real estate transfer fee income is down, he added.
“I think that we’re going to feel more of a crunch after the first quarter of 2009,” Sciortino predicted.
After the county prosecutor’s office received a letter from CCA saying the U.S. Marshals Service was seeking to enter into a direct contract with CCA to house federal prisoners at the Hubbard Road prison, county officials met earlier this month in Cleveland with a panel of three federal judges to discuss the matter.
The federal government now has a contract with the county to house federal prisoners in the county jail and at the Hubbard Road prison, known as the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center.
The federal judges ordered the county to file by Jan. 15 a comprehensive financial audit of county jail operations over the past 18 months.
The three federal judges are overseeing compliance with a consent order that settled a federal class-action lawsuit won by county jail inmates. That lawsuit, filed in 2003, alleged that unconstitutionally crowded conditions prevailed in the jail.
The settlement requires that the jail be fully open — as it is now — and it includes arrangements for revenue-producing federal and city prisoners to be housed there.
So far this year, the county has received more than $4.3 million for its revenue-generating prisoners, of which more than $1 million came from the city of Youngstown and the rest from the federal government.
The $4.3 million represents more than 21 percent of the sheriff’s $20 million annual budget.
The county gets $80 per inmate per day for all city misdemeanor prisoners it houses beyond the 71st city inmate; and it gets $80 per day for federal prisoners, except that the old rate of $68.84 per inmate per day applies for Immigration and Customs Enforcement prisoners.
Commissioner David N. Ludt has said the county needs 150 revenue-producing prisoners to maintain current jail operations.
milliken@vindy.com