Mahoning commissioners set Tuesday vote on austere budget

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George Tablack

YOUNGSTOWN — Even after they adopt an austere budget, the Mahoning County commissioners will be facing many unknowns, Administrator George J. Tablack says.

“What we’re trying to estimate are contingencies,” Tablack told the commissioners in a Monday staff meeting. A vote on the county’s full-year budget is set for today.

“It’s still a fluid process,” added Tablack, who is also the county’s budget director.

How the budget reductions will affect staffing patterns still needs to be discussed with unions representing workers in the facilities department, 911 center and clerk of courts office, Tablack said.

With financial uncertainties causing the commissioners to operate under a temporary first-quarter budget until now, the commissioners will adopt the permanent full-year 2009 budget at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the courthouse basement, the day before the legal deadline to do so.

Besides a resolution to adopt the budget, the commissioners’ agenda for the public meeting includes a resolution authorizing layoffs among non-union employees whose salaries are paid from the county’s general fund.

Read more in Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com