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Budget requests exceed funds by $10.3 million
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County commissioners will be sorting through nearly $60.5 million in budget requests from county departments as they pare that number down to about $50.2 million in spending.
The $50.2 million in general-fund revenue estimated by the county budget commission for 2014 is close to the commissioners’ appropriation for this year, which rounds off to about $50.3 million.
Commissioner David Ditzler said public safety, specifically the sheriff’s department and the prosecutor’s office, will be his highest spending priorities.
“The most important thing that we do as elected officials is make sure that the county is safe, not only for the residents, but to entice new businesses,” he said. “It’s important that we promote a safe environment in Mahoning County.”
The biggest request came from Sheriff Jerry Greene, who seeks nearly $21.7 million for 2014, compared with the $18.4 million his department will spend this year.
The county bolstered the sheriff’s budget by $500,000 from casino-tax revenues this year, said Audrey Tillis, budget director.
With the county’s main jail having been fully reopened in April, Greene seeks extra money to reopen the 96-bed minimum-security jail to overnight use and establish a drug-abuse rehabilitation program within the low-security lockup.
Due to budget constraints, the minimum-security jail, which is now a staging area for the day-reporting inmate work detail, hasn’t been open for overnight use since May 2010.
At a Friday budget hearing for the coroner’s office, Tillis announced that one of the county’s two sales taxes will be on the May 2014 ballot.
Both are now half-percent taxes, with one being continuous and the other being a five-year tax.
It will be up to the commissioners whether to renew the five-year tax as is, or change the amount or duration of that tax when it goes on the ballot next year, she said.
Dr. David Kennedy, county coroner, proposed a 2014 budget of $807,518 for his department, compared with the $759,940 his department will spend this year.
The increase stems in part from increases in professional services costs, including such things as body transport and lab tests, and his desire to give his staff a 3 percent raise.
“There’s nothing frivolous in there, but I won’t not order an autopsy because we don’t have the money,” Dr. Kennedy said of his budget request.
“We can always make adjustments if we have to later in the year,” Tillis replied.
Dr. Kennedy said the county’s three coroner’s investigators, who earn about $12 per hour, are underpaid, and that a fourth coroner’s investigator position is now vacant because an investigator recently left for a similar job paying $8 per hour more in Cleveland.
Coroner’s investigators, who are on round-the-clock call, take photographs and preserve evidence at death scenes, conduct interviews, assist at autopsies, write reports and communicate with bereaved families.
Besides himself, Dr. Kennedy’s staff consists of Dr. Joseph Ohr, forensic pathologist, the three investigators and two secretaries.