Official: What state cuts mean

Staff report

Austintown

Michael Kurish, township fiscal officer, told township trustees Monday what state cuts in local funding mean for Austintown.

In the next fiscal year, Kurish said Austintown will lose about $1.8 million in state funding.

Township Trustee David Ditzler said next year will be the first in many in which Austintown doesn’t have a paving program.

Ditzler said many of the township’s departments need more employees, but it’s just not in the budget to hire.

To keep the township operating at its current level, Ditzler said, the township would need to place a 3-mill levy on the ballot.

For now, however, the trustees are asking residents to support two renewal levies in November as well as a 0.5-mill senior- services levy.