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MAHONING COUNTY BUDGET | Surge in sales-tax collection increases carryover
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County’s general-fund carryover from 2011 to 2012 is about $4.4 million, according to Carol L. McFall, chief deputy county auditor.
That’s considerably higher than the $3.1 million to $3.5 million her office projected last month.
“We’re always very conservative in our projection,” she said, noting that projections change “on a day-to-day basis.”
McFall, a certified public accountant, attributed the gain in carryover to growth in sales-tax collections, a year-end surge in court and land- transfer fee revenue, and a $100,000 year-end rent payment from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation for its occupancy of the second floor of the county’s Children Services Board building at 222 W. Federal St.
Another contributing factor is the county commissioners’ instruction to the purchasing department to close all unnecessary purchase orders, especially in the general fund, at year’s end, McFall said. “If they didn’t incur the expense, that P.O. was getting liquidated,” she said.
McFall said Wednesday that she expects the county’s budget commission to certify the $4.4 million carryover. That commission consists of Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, Treasurer Daniel R. Yemma and Prosecutor Paul J. Gains.
The $4.4 million would be added to the $49.6 million general fund budget the county commissioners approved Dec. 22.
The general fund is the county’s main operating fund, which pays for operations of the county jail, courts, prosecutor’s office, 911 emergency dispatching center, and a host of other central-government functions.
McFall said she hopes the commissioners will save as much as possible of the carryover toward the accumulation of a fund that will allow the county’s future annual carryover to equal 10 to 15 percent of annual general-fund expenditures.
She also said a financial cushion is desirable because “a lot can happen between now and the end of the year.”
General fund spending in 2011 was $56,091,260, so McFall said she’d like to see at least a $5.6 million annual carryover.
“That’s certainly a noble goal, but, as of today, our budgeted expenses out of the administration code are about $4.1 million,” said John A. McNally IV, chairman of the commissioners.
McNally said the $4.4 million carryover will go into the commissioners’ general fund administration code, where it will be added to the $398,910 the commissioners put in that code on Dec. 22. That code pays for unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, interest on the county’s debt, matching funds for state and federal grants, and a host of other expenses.
McNally said he believes the commissioners will allocate a combined total of $225,000 from that fund to the county’s extension office and soil and water conservation district.
Although funding these two offices from the general fund is optional, McFall said she believes the commissioners should fund these agencies, as they have in the past, because these agencies are important advisory resources for community well-being.
McFall also said she hopes some of the carryover can be used to provide local matching money for grants that help fund county programs.
Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti said he thinks the first priority for any additional available monies should be the county jail, where two prisoner housing units remain closed.
“Unfortunately, we still have a high crime rate here, and, to keep a fully functioning jail is the best way that we can help combat crime,” Traficanti said.
The commissioners funded the sheriff’s department at $14.1 million for 2012, far short of the $19.6 million requested by Sheriff Randall A. Wellington, whose department operates the county jail.
The most notable revenue surge was in the county’s sales-tax collections, McFall said, noting that the December 2011 sales tax revenue of $2,500,831 was 11.4 percent higher than the $2,243,351 received in December 2010.
Because of the two-month lag between actual sales and the county’s receipt of sales tax revenues, December revenues are derived from October sales, she noted.
The December-to-December gain was much larger than the miniscule gain in sales tax revenue from $2,353,431 in November of 2010 to $2,368,426 in November 2011, she noted.
Full-year sales tax collections were $28,259,168 in 2008, when the recession began. They plummeted to $26,171,544 in 2009, and rebounded to $27,086,743 in 2010 and $29,436,264 in 2011, according to the county auditor’s figures.
“I believe things are looking up for Mahoning County,” McFall said. “We had a really good Christmas,” she said, referring to her observation of increased customer traffic at Southern Park Mall during the most recent holiday season, compared with that of a year ago.