43
Trumbull officials plan to OK budget for 2012
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Trumbull County commissioners and the county auditor are expecting to approve a 2012 general-fund budget of $42 million, a slight decrease compared with the $42.4 million 2011 budget.
County officials say their main goal is to get through another year without having to make layoffs or curtail services.
“We’ve been blessed compared to a lot of counties,” said Commissioner Dan Polivka.
“We haven’t had to close any wings of the jail or eliminate road deputies,” like many counties, said Adrian Biviano, county auditor.
“The employees have taken freezes so we could keep the same level of service,” said Commissioner Frank Fuda. “Everyone’s cooperating,” Biviano said, referring to elected officials.
At the current pace, sales-tax receipts this year will be about $1.7 million higher than last year, but the state has reduced funding to Trumbull County by $2.1 million in 2012, Biviano said.
The county has about a $7 million cushion in its “rainy-day fund,” but that cushion has dropped from about $10 million to $12 million in recent years as the economy worsened.
In budget hearings that began Monday morning, officials such as Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court tried to show that they have done all they can to keep their funding request down.
The common-pleas court is asking a paralegal who assists common-pleas court judges to take on the duties of a part-time assistant jury commissioner who left for another job and a full-time courier who retired.
That will save about $83,000 in 2012, Judge Logan said. The replacement of a retiring 15-year bailiff with one at the entry level will reduce salary by $9,079 in 2012, said Jodi Camuso, assistant court administrator and bailiff to Judge Logan.
Meanwhile, the court will use $400,000 in special-projects funds to pay for $131,000 worth of improvements to the video- surveillance equipment at the courthouse, plus the salaries of eight courthouse employees and travel and seminar expenses.
This is the first year the court has used the fees, charged on new cases filed at the courthouse, to pay for salaries and travel, said Camuso.
Under the category of general operations, the common pleas courts spent $2,380,047 in 2010 and are asking for $2,388,747 in 2012.
Meanwhile, the Trumbull County board of elections asked for an additional $255,000 for 2012 to pay for the cost of a second primary election to be June 12 in Ohio. The second election will be for the presidential and Congressional primary.
The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office has pledged to reimburse each county at the end of 2012 for that election, but each county must pay those costs up front, said Kelly Pallante, board of elections director.
The board also will need an additional $74,000 for postage to send out additional absentee ballots in 2012 because the Ohio Secretary of State will be mailing absentee-ballot applications to all active voters for the November presidential election.
That should increase the number of people voting absentee, Pallante said.