‘This is a depression’
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MAHONING COUNTY’S BUDGET CRISIS DEEPENS
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
milliken@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
George Tablack
Mahoning County government faces a deepening financial crisis with projected general-fund revenues for this year 23 percent below the 2008 level and a permanent budget- adoption deadline looming next week, said county Administrator George J. Tablack.
General-fund revenues were $66,239,000 in 2008 and $57,550,000 last year, and Tablack projects they’ll be $51,300,000 this year.
“We have to be protective that we’re not appropriating money that we’re not going to collect, because, if we do that, we’re only compounding the problem for next year,” Tablack said.
For 17 consecutive months, sales-tax revenue has been below the same month in the prior year, he observed.
“We still don’t know when we’ll hit bottom. It’s clear from the trends we’ve not reached bottom yet,” Tablack said.
Combined revenues from the county’s two half-percent sales taxes fell from $28,259,168 in 2008 to $26,171,544 in 2009 and are projected to drop to $24,750,000 this year. One of those sales taxes is on the May 4 ballot for renewal.
State funding was $5,490,457 in 2008 and $4,764,684 in 2009, and Tablack expects it to drop to $4,300,100 this year.
Real-estate-tax revenues grew slightly from $7,174,949 in 2008 to $7,191,397 last year, but Tablack expects them to drop to $7,077,802 this year.
Interest income plummeted from $3,619,847 in 2008 to $1,995,230 last year, and Tablack predicts it’ll drop to $1.4 million this year.
Income from housing federal and city prisoners in the county jail fell from $4,667,003 in 2008 to $3,728,238 last year, and $1 million is projected this year.
With a projected 23 percent revenue decline over two years, Tablack said any county department that doesn’t make a 23 percent expenditure cut forces other departments to make larger cuts.
“We’re down to bare bones. That’s why I suggested a four-day workweek [for county employees]. This is a depression,” said county Commissioner David N. Ludt.
Tablack and Ludt made their remarks Tuesday in a budget hearing for the county’s domestic-relations court, where Judge Beth Smith asked for a 2010 budget equal to the $790,000 in general-fund money appropriated to the court last year.
In 2008, that court spent $861,862 from the general fund, which is the county’s main operating fund.
Mary Lou McDonald, domestic-relations-court administrator, told the commissioners that the court has conserved general-fund money by transferring a key employee’s payroll and benefit costs from the general fund to a special-projects fund supported by court filing fees. The court also has curtailed periodical subscriptions and travel and training expenses, she added.
Tablack said the county can’t establish its budget until it knows what it will spend to operate the sheriff’s department, which is the largest general-fund department.
The sheriff’s budget is contingent on the outcome of negotiations between Youngstown and the county concerning how county-jail operations will be funded under a consent decree that settled a federal lawsuit by inmates concerning jail crowding.
With that matter now before the federal court, and with Sheriff Randall Wellington planning to close half the jail and lay off one-third of his deputies, the commissioners must adopt a permanent full-year budget by April 1.
So far this year, the county has been operating on a temporary budget.