By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning County’s $58.4 million budget for next year provides room to fill some staff vacancies and maintains current levels of programs and services, officials said.

Commissioners adopted the combined budget for the county’s general and criminal and administrative justice funds Thursday.

That number compares with a combined total of about $56.3 million that is scheduled to be spent this year.

Except for 2 percent pay increases, effective Jan. 1, for staff of the county’s Veterans Service Commission, whose $1.9 million departmental allocation is prescribed by state law, the 2015 budget contains no pay increases other than automatic step increases for length of service or raises included in previously negotiated labor contracts, said Audrey Tillis, county budget director.

Susan Skrzynski, VSC director, said the five-member commission that governs her office approved the raises last week and that her office expects to return $325,000 to $350,000 in unused money to the county’s general fund at the end of this year.

“Our VSC commissioners felt that just a 2 percent pay increase for January would keep the people that are professionally trained within our office,” she said. “We manage our money very carefully, and we always give money back to the general fund, so we don’t spend our money frivolously.”

The VSC staff pay raise follows a 5 percent pay raise given to all 13 commission staff members last Dec. 29.

“Nobody got any step increases. It was just a COLA raise,” she said, referring to a cost-of-living allowance.

The budget adopted creates no new staff positions, but vacancies may be filled, Tillis said.

“This budget just brings us to a point where we stay status quo,” said Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti.

“Everything that we’ve done has been to maintain the levels of staffing we currently have,” said David Ditzler, chairman of the commissioners.

Increases in departmental allocations for 2015 over their authorized 2014 general-fund spending stem in part from departments, including the courts, prosecutor’s, sheriff’s, clerk of court’s, treasurer’s and auditor’s offices, having used other funding sources to cover certain expenses on a one-time basis in 2014.

Those sources include depletion of fund reserves and court-cost charges and filing fees, Tillis said. Those expenses are being returned to the general fund in 2015, she added.

The nearly 7 percent increase in the facilities maintenance budget stems from increased repair and maintenance costs, she said.

“They’re not windfalls at all,” Tillis said of the increases in general-fund allocations from 2014 to 2015. “Departments wish they were, but they’re not.”

Righetti noted that most departments didn’t get all the money they requested.

Prosecutor Paul J. Gains got $3.3 million for his department next year, which was much less than the $3.9 million he requested to allow his office to fill five staff vacancies. His allocation, however, still exceeds the $3.1 million he received this year.

“I knew that I would receive significantly less than I would ask for. I knew it because I’m a member of the budget commission,” Gains said. That commission consists of the prosecutor, treasurer and auditor.

“At least, we’re maintaining” the status quo, Gains said of his 2015 allocation. “I can live with it. I will deal with what I’m given, and that’s all I can do.”

“This is going to keep our services right now at least as they have been,” Sheriff Jerry Greene said of his $19.7 million allocation.

The budget must cover rising employee and inmate heath care costs, but he said his budget doesn’t allow for pay increases or hiring additional deputies.

The sheriff had asked for $20.3 million for 2015. His authorized spending for this year is $18.9 million.

The general fund, the county’s main operating fund, is being split in 2015 into two funds.

One fund is the criminal and administrative justice fund for the sheriff’s, prosecutor’s and coroner’s office and 911 emergency dispatching center, which will be the only beneficiaries of a 0.75 percent sales tax voters approved Nov. 4.

The other fund, which still will be called the general fund, is for all other county entities such as the commissioners’, treasurer’s and auditor’s offices.

The 0.75 percent, five-year sales tax, which will generate about $24 million in annual revenue, consists of renewal of a 0.50 percent sales tax and the addition of 0.25 percent.

Retailers will begin collecting the extra 0.25 percent April 1, but the state won’t send the county any revenue from it until June.

County officials said the extra tax was needed to compensate for losses in recent years in revenue from the state, from investment income and from housing federal prisoners in the county jail.

The county does not plan to borrow any money in anticipation of revenues from the additional tax, Tillis said.

The extra tax raises the county’s sales-tax rate from 7 percent to 7.25 percent.

The breakdown is 5.75 percent for the state, the 0.75 percent the voters approved, a 0.50 percent county sales tax voters made permanent in May 2007, and 0.25 percent for the Western Reserve Transit Authority.

Among the larger 2015 general and criminal justice fund allocations are: $6.1 million for the juvenile court; $3.5 million for the facilities maintenance department; $2.5 million for the common pleas court; slightly more than $2 million for indigent criminal defense; $1.7 million for the clerk of courts; and $1.2 million for data processing.

The reduction in the board of elections budget from slightly more than $2 million this year to $1.7 million in 2015 stems from more staff being needed for this gubernatorial election year than for next year’s off-year elections.