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Be lean team, Mahoning County agencies urged
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
The cooperation of all department heads and labor unions in Mahoning County government is needed to help the county balance its budget this year, officials stressed Thursday.
“I just want everybody to remain optimistic and do the best that we can as a team. If we fight one another, this is just going to make things inextricably worse,” said Anthony T. Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners.
Faced with a long-term, recession-induced revenue decline, the commissioners unanimously approved a slimmed-down $51,728,000 permanent budget for the 2010 general fund, the county’s main operating arm.
“This budget assumes that we will continue to receive cooperation from many of our unions that have made concessions in many cases through June of this year,” Administrator George J. Tablack said.
Many employees have taken a 10 percent pay cut through floating holidays, from the commissioners’ staff to the sheriff’s and treasurer’s offices to the facilities departments to the clerk of courts office.
This budget is substantially below the $62.8 million the commissioners allocated in 2009.
Although many departments spent more money than initially allocated, actual spending was $61.1 million last year, compared to $67.5 million in 2008.
General-fund revenues were $57.5 million last year, compared to $66.2 million in 2008.
The reduced budget follows declines in every major county revenue stream, most notably 17 consecutive months of declining sales tax revenues compared to the same month in the prior year.
Thursday was the legal deadline to pass the budget. The general fund began this year with a cash balance of $867,766 carried over from last year.
Ten years ago, the county had a $19 million general fund carry-over, Tablack noted.
“I’d rather put a budget out there that we can live with right now, which is going to be tough, than bounce checks at the end of the year,” Commissioner David N. Ludt added.
“We’re having these issues with the full 1 percent in place, and so we really do need to have this sales-tax renewal that’s on the ballot on May 4 pass,” Commissioner John A. McNally IV said. The county has two half-percent sales taxes, which together raise about $26 million annually for the general fund.
The sheriff’s department, the largest recipient of general fund money, was allocated $16,394,000 last year and actually spent $17,348,732 but got only $11.8 million this year.
The separate jail medical line-item allocation was reduced from $1.8 million to $1.6 million. “We’re going to live within what we’ve got, and whatever we have to do to make cuts, we’ll do it,” even if it means cutting staffing, said Robert Knight, jail health administrator. His department provides the required free health care to all county jail inmates. Jail medical spent $1,764,621 last year.
The criminal division of the prosecutor’s office’s allocation was cut from $2.1 million to $1.7 million, and the civil division’s allocation was cut from $900,000 to $800,000.
Last year, the criminal division spent $2,214,512, and the civil division, $868,157.
Prosecutor Paul J. Gains announced last week that beginning this week his staff would be taking 12 hours of unpaid time off every two weeks to help him balance his budget.
The allocation for the juvenile court, the second-largest general-fund department, remained constant at $5.5 million. That court spent $6.2 million last year.
Probate Judge Mark Belinky said he is pleased the probate court got the $842,000 he asked for this year. After Judge Belinky and the commissioners settled a lawsuit over what the judge said was an inadequate $690,000 initial allocation, the probate court spent $889,055 last year.
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, administrative judge of the common pleas court, said she didn’t have enough information to comment on the court’s $2,030,000 allocation. The court spent $2,394,834 last year.
The board of elections, which was allocated $1.3 million and spent $1,478,878 in an off-year last year, is getting $1,320,000 in this gubernatorial-election year.
To save money, the board has reduced seven of its employees from a 12-month to a 9-month work schedule, is cutting the number of precincts and has cut all part-time workers to a bare minimum, said Thomas McCabe, elections director. “I think we’re going to be OK this year,” he said.
To run his office, Auditor Michael Sciortino is getting $760,000 this year, compared with the $978,364 he spent last year.
“There are four full-time positions that are vacant that I will likely abolish. There is one accounting position that I abolished already, and there are at least two or three right now that I’m targeting,” for abolishing and permanent layoff, Sciortino said.
Sciortino added he is considering closing his office one or two days a month, thereby giving all employees a 5 percent or 10 percent pay cut. He would take an equivalent pay cut.