Belinky to appeal allocation

By Peter H. Milliken | April 1, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

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Judge Mark Belinky

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George Tablack

By Peter H. Milliken

Other judges will take their budgets under advisement.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Probate Court judge is preparing to file a complaint with the 7th District Court of Appeals over what he calls insufficient funding, but other judges are still mulling what to do.

The probate court, which spent $762,859 last year, received $690,000 for this year when the county commissioners approved the full-year general fund budget Tuesday. That figure is substantially below the $915,715 that Probate Judge Mark Belinky demanded in a March 6 judgment entry.

Judge Belinky said Tuesday that he plans to follow through with his previous statement that he would file a complaint in the appellate court if his funding demand wasn’t met.

“I don’t think they’ve given me any choice. I can’t operate the court on the amount of money they’ve budgeted,” Judge Belinky said of the commissioners. “We represent the most vulnerable members of the community, and I’m not putting their care at risk.”

No probate court in a comparable county has a budget as low as what he received for this year, Judge Belinky said.

“The projected budget is almost $63 million. That should be enough money to run Mahoning County and give us what we need to run the court,” Judge Belinky said.

“I would hope that, as in the past, the courts, in particular, will work with the commissioners’ office and staff and try to avoid costly litigation,” said George J. Tablack, county administrator and budget director.

Another big loser was juvenile court, which spent $6,331,737 last year, but was allocated $5.5 million this year for an $831,737 cut.

“They are being prudently conservative,” in budgeting, Judge Theresa Dellick of the county’s juvenile court said of the commissioners. “We’re going to do everything we can to work within the confines of the budget.”

Unlike Judge Belinky, Judge Dellick said she doesn’t intend to issue any judgment entry demanding a specific budget.

The juvenile court judge said her court is submitting grant applications designed to produce alternative funding to compensate for the general fund loss, and she is confident of success.

“In the economic situation of our country and our community, I expected that there would be some cuts that would have to be made,” said Judge Beth Smith of domestic relations court. “I’m going to look at all options. Difficult times call for difficult decisions.”

The domestic relations court was cut from the $861,862 it spent last year to $790,000 this year.

The common pleas court line item was cut from $2,352,520 spent last year to $2.1 million this year.

Judge Lou A. D’Apolito, presiding judge, and Judge John M. Durkin, administrative judge, said they’d meet with the three other general division common pleas judges to discuss their options.

“I’m going to go through these line items to see where the cuts were proposed and then meet with my colleagues to see how this all impacts us and what we should do about it, if anything,” Judge D’Apolito said.