Mahoning County's budget cuts total $4.7M

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Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti

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Mahoning County Commissioner John McNally IV

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

Faced with an ailing economy and declining revenues, the Mahoning County commissioners approved a $62,841,000 full-year general fund budget for 2009.

The budget adopted Tuesday is $4,744,332 lower than last year’s general fund spending, which totalled $67,585,332.

“It’s a very ugly scenario. ... If people aren’t working, they’re not buying,” said Anthony T. Traficanti, board chairman, alluding to the 4 percent shortfall in the county’s sales tax receipts so far this year.

Due to financial uncertainties, the county had operated through Tuesday on a first- quarter temporary budget. Legally, a full-year budget had to be adopted by today.

“This is a very difficult vote for me ... but it’s something that is inescapable,” Traficanti added. “We’re going to do the best that we can with what we have to work with.”

Commissioner John A. McNally IV said the budget cuts are “fair, equitable and reasonable and necessary.”

“There’s only so much money. We’ll do what we can,” said Commissioner David N. Ludt, calling layoffs in county government “a tragedy.”

Besides adopting the budget, the commissioners authorized layoffs among nonunion employees whose salaries are paid from the county’s general fund. The meeting agenda did not set a specific number of furloughs.

Most departments lost money. The sheriff’s department, by far the largest in the general fund, plummeted by about $3 million from $19,374,221 spent last year to $16,394,000 in this year’s budget.

The savings there were achieved through a series of layoffs and concessions, including rolling holidays, with deputies taking one unpaid day off every two weeks. Tablack said acceptance of the rolling holidays by deputies was essential to keeping the county’s main and misdemeanor jails fully open.

Traficanti urged other departments to adopt rolling holidays. “I believe that will stem most of the layoff problems that we may experience,” he said.

Another big loser was the civil division of the prosecutor’s office, which was cut by 10 percent from the $999,702 it spent last year to $900,000 this year.

The criminal division of the prosecutor’s office, which spent $2,291,702 last year, received $2.1 million this year.

The 911 center was cut from $928,201 to $800,000. That cut could substantially impair the center’s operation, said Clark Jones, county emergency management director. “We’ve been working at bare minimums now,” he said. “To reduce staffing levels at any particular point in time could jeopardize, if not compromise, public safety,” he said.

The board of elections, which spent $2,656,430 during 2008, a presidential election year, was cut in this off-year election budget to $1.3 million.

The commissioners cut the Mahoning County office of the Ohio State University Extension Service, which received $303,000 last year, and the Mahoning Soil and Water Conservation District, which received $110,000 last year, to zero funding from the county’s general fund this year. They were funded from the general fund administrative category.

“We’re looking at ways that we can fund them through non-general fund revenue sources,” McNally said.

“I’m concerned that we’re going to have to lay some people off,” said Dave Goerig, director of the extension office in Canfield, noting that 40 percent of the office’s funding comes from the county and the other 60 percent from a combination of state and federal monies.

The local funding loss deprives the county of matching money for federal funds, he said. The office is seeking alternative funding through grants.

The extension office, which has nine employees, provides farmers and the public with research-based information on agricultural and horticultural matters, educates the public about nutrition and operates 4-H programs.

“It’s in these [difficult economic] times that people turn to us for our help the most,” Goerig said.

A few categories showed significant gains over what was spent last year, most notably the Soldier’s Relief line item, which rose from $971,656 to $1,481,000, and the Veterans Services line item, which went from $339,018 to $563,000. By law, those categories together receive a half-mill of property tax, and unspent money is returned from them each year to the general fund.

Soldiers Relief is the emergency assistance paid to needy veterans. The veterans services line item is for operating the county Veterans Service Commission office.

The general fund administrative category increased from $8,923,351 spent last year to $10,972,000 this year. That category includes funding for the county’s Department of Job and Family Services, county debt payments, and, this year, $500,000 for unemployment compensation for those being laid off.

Most of the growth in that category is explained by debt payments, county Administrator and Budget Director George J. Tablack said.

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