Mahoning County judges are not being reasonable

What part of “economic re- cession” don’t the judges of the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court general division understand?

How difficult is it for educated people to see that the revenue stream for county government is just a trickle because of the national and global economic slowdown, which has necessitated across-the-board cuts in departmental budgets?

And, do the five general division judges of the common pleas court, James Evans, R. Scott Krichbaum, Maureen Sweeney, John Durkin and Lou D’Apolito, not realize that with the criminal justice system grabbing almost 70 percent of the general fund, there isn’t money to meet their latest demand for more?

Yet, not only have the judges slapped the county commissioners with a court order seeking $260,013 more than the $2,030,000 that was allocated, but Evans, Krichbaum, Sweeney, Durkin and D’Apolito have threatened to sue in the Ohio Supreme Court.

Let them. Commissioners David Ludt, Anthony Traficanti and John McNally aren’t magicians. They don’t have supernatural powers to create money out of thin air.

Indeed, we wholeheartedly agree with Traficanti that any meeting between the judges, the commissioners and Administrator George Tablack, who also serves as the county’s budget director, should be public.

It’s time the private sector taxpayers of Mahoning County, who have had to deal with the reality of pay freezes, givebacks, layoffs and even job eliminations, found out just how well government employees have fared. The guarantee of a lucrative pension, complete with taxpayer-funded health care, remains intact for all public workers and has not been affected by the economic contraction.

We aren’t impressed when the judges say that their employees have had to forego raises and that they have shifted many operating costs from the general fund to other court funds.

It’s called the real world — which many in the public sector have a difficult time understanding. The idea of doing more with less is still foreign to them. The reason is simple: Government operates with taxpayer dollars and, in the past, when those dollars failed to meet growing expenses, taxpayers were asked to give more.

But those days have long gone. The passage of a new tax, which is rare, or the renewal of one comes with a clear message from the voters: We expect you to not only live within your means, but to make government cost effective.

Unreasonable

The demand by the five common pleas court judges for more money is not only ill-timed, it is unreasonable.

And while they might think that going to the Ohio Supreme Court will guarantee success, we would remind them of two things: One, the justices will ask these questions as they come up with a ruling: Is the demand for more money reasonable? Is the money necessary for the proper administration of justice?

We would also remind the common pleas judges of the late Chief Justice Thomas Moyer’s public statements regarding the judiciary’s attitude that its demand for money cannot be challenged by the funding authority.

Moyer made it clear that judges have a responsibility to look at the big picture and can no longer operate on the belief that they are untouchable.

It would be interesting to see how the Supreme Court deals with a lawsuit filed by the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court against the commissioners.