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Don’t be lavish, Mahoning budget director tells county officials
YOUNGSTOWN
Despite the $8 million increase in revenue to Mahoning County resulting from Tuesday’s passage of the 0.75 percent sales tax, county officials should propose only necessary items and avoid lavish suggestions in their budget proposals, the county budget director said.
“As we move forward, I want everyone still to think accountability of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it,” Audrey Tillis, budget director, told the county commissioners Thursday.
“We’re not at the point that we can have luxury offices, but we are at the point that we can at least move our government forward now, proactively, and not be reactive and not go backwards,” Tillis said.
Tillis made her remarks as the commissioners prepare to conduct hearings on 2015 budget proposals for county departments.
Voters, by a narrow margin, renewed a 0.50 percent sales tax and added 0.25 percent to it for five years, for a combined total of $24 million in annual revenue.
The 0.75 percent sales tax is dedicated entirely to the sheriff’s department, prosecutor’s and coroner’s offices and 911 emergency dispatching center.
“There’s no ambiguity here” as to where the money goes, said David Ditzler, chairman of the county commissioners.
In their campaign for passage of the tax, county officials said the extra 0.25 percent is needed to compensate for reductions in recent years in state funding, investment income and income from housing federal prisoners in the county jail.
“It’s probably one of the most-important issues, I think, the citizens in this Valley will ever vote on,” Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said of the sales tax, which passed by a 51-to-49 percent margin.
“You voted for this community. ...You voted and stood up and said: ‘I want to see our kids protected. I want to see a future. I want to see a criminal justice system in place, and I want to see a functional government,’” he said of the voters.
Although he disagreed with him on the county’s purchase of Oakhill Renaissance Place, Traficanti praised outgoing county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino, who was defeated after nine years in office by Republican political newcomer Ralph Meacham.
“I wish you all the best. We’ve worked together over the years. We may not have always gotten along or seen eye to eye,” Traficanti told Sciortino.
“You were always there. You always stood up. You always helped. Your office was always accessible to us,” said Traficanti, who is in the middle of his third four-year term as a county commissioner.
Traficanti supported and Sciortino opposed the county’s purchase of Oakhill in 2006 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Sciortino lost Tuesday’s election under the cloud of his being under indictment in the criminal case related to Oakhill, in which he and others allegedly conspired to impede the move of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services from rented quarters to Oakhill.
Sciortino and his co-defendants have pleaded innocent.
“When you go through an election, you put the power of this great country and of our constitution into the hands of the voters,” Sciortino told the commissioners.
“It’s not about the good vs. the evil,” Sciortino said. “It’s about whether or not people believe in what you’re doing and whether or not it’s time for a change. That’s the way the voters felt.”
Sciortino said he recently spoke to Meacham, adding: “My door is completely open.”
The county has many major issues on the table, including its budget and infrastructure, economic development programs and the forthcoming e-filing system for its courts, Sciortino said.
“This was not my office. This was the county auditor’s office of the people,” Sciortino said. “It’s time for me to move on and another individual who’s very qualified that’s going to come in and do a great job,” the auditor said.
Meacham, a certified public accountant, takes office March 9.
“We’ll be here for him to make sure that there’s a smooth transition,” Sciortino said.