Mahoning County’s budget had better not sprout raises

2“They’re not windfalls at all. Departments wish they were, but they’re not.” — Audrey Tillis, county budget director.

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

“This is going to keep our services right now at least as they have been.” — Sheriff Jerry Greene.

The common thread through those and other comments from county officials last week after the commissioners adopted a $58.4 million spending blueprint for 2015 is plain to see: There is no Christmas tree adorned with all sorts of goodies for county employees.

Indeed, it’s more like a lump of coal in each stocking — as well it should be, given that county government remains on shaky fiscal ground.

So what happens if department heads who are elected by the people throw caution to the wind and decide to play Santa Claus with our tax dollars?

Given the statements last week from commissioners Ditzler and Rimedio-Righetti and previous comments from Commissioner Anthony Traficanti, we would hope the keepers of the purse would step in and cut the allocations to the tone-deaf officeholders.

As the tally of the 0.75-percent sales tax renewal/increase in the Nov. 4 general election made clear, Mahoning County residents aren’t in a giving mood. To be sure, the sales tax issue was approved — but only by a slender margin. Of the 66,532 votes cast, 33,890 were in favor of the tax and 32,642 were opposed. On the night of the election, Ditzler acknowledged that he and his colleagues would have to prove to the taxpayers that they are good stewards of the public treasury.

Residents will not take kindly to being sold a bill of goods if it turns out that more money is going into the pockets of county employees.

Budget Director Tillis was adamant last week that the 2015 spending plan contains no dollars for pay increases other than automatic step increases for length of service or raises included in previously negotiated labor contracts.

The county’s Veterans Service Commission staff is in line for a 2 percent hike — in addition to the 5 percent increase staffers received last December — while sheriff’s deputies could reap the benefits if a conciliator brought in to settle the labor contract dispute rules in favor of the union.

The ruling would be binding. Thus, we urge the conciliator not to view the $24 million to be generated by the 0.75-percent sales tax renewal/increase as a windfall for the sheriff’s department. It is not.

Public safety

Granted, the revenue is specifically earmarked for public safety, but it is to be shared by the sheriff’s department, the prosecutor’s and coroner’s offices and the 911 emergency dispatch center.

This isn’t about the Grinch stealing Christmas. More than 700 county employees received raises not long ago when government decided to make them whole after they were required to pay their share of the public pension contribution.

Until then, the county (read that the taxpayers) was paying the employer and employee shares of the contribution.

That was an unjustified expenditure of public dollars because the county should not have been paying the employees’ share in the first place.

Against that backdrop, any pay raises in 2015 will be viewed by the public as just another example of the public sector being out of touch with the region’s economic realities.

Ditzler, Traficanti and Rimedio-Righetti must stand firm on how our tax dollars are spent.