By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Bolstered by soaring sales-tax revenues, the finances of Mahoning County are robust, county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino told the commissioners in his final annual state of the county report.

On Thursday, Sciortino, who leaves office March 8, presented the commissioners with a financial report showing nonstop growth in annual sales-tax revenue to the county government from a low point just below $26.2 million at the bottom of the Great Recession in 2008-09 to $31.6 million in 2013 and nearly $33.5 million in 2014.

“As economic conditions improve, our overall fiscal strength improves,” Sciortino said. “Our fiscal condition, as far as the state of the county is concerned, is strong.”

“It seems like we’re headed toward a bright future,” said Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti.

“Because we have new revenues coming in next year doesn’t mean that we have to get crazy” with spending, said Commissioner Anthony Traficanti. “We still have to watch our money. We have to keep the purse strings as tight as we possibly can.”

Sales-tax revenues will grow again this year, after retailers on April 1 begin collecting an additional 0.25 percent sales tax voters approved Nov. 4. The county will begin seeing that new money in June. The first full year of revenue from the new tax will be 2016.

The voters last fall renewed a 0.50 percent sales tax and added to it 0.25 percent, with the entire 0.75 percent five-year measure dedicated to four county justice system departments — the sheriff’s office, which operates the county jail and patrols roads; the prosecutor’s office; the coroner’s office; and the 911 emergency dispatching center.

In May 2007, the voters made a separate 0.50 percent county sales tax permanent.

The county’s general fund, which is its main operating fund, totaled just slightly more than $56 million in 2014.

This year, the general fund is $52.5 million, and $17.6 million of that will be transferred into the separate, newly created justice system fund.

The 2015 justice fund will total $24.75 million.

In 2015, the sales tax is projected to contribute $32 million to the general fund, which includes the departments central to the administration of county government, and slightly more than $6.5 million to the justice system fund.

Sciortino, a Democrat, was unseated in the Nov. 4 election by Ralph Meacham, a Republican, who will succeed him March 9.

Meacham is the first Republican elected to a nonjudicial county government office in 30 years.

The commissioners also authorized the establishment of a deferred building maintenance fund, which will be derived from 50 cents per square foot per year from rents to be paid by tenants in county buildings such as Oakhill Renaissance Place on Oak Hill Avenue.

The money will be used for maintaining county buildings.

In other business, the commissioners approved a $1,000 sponsorship grant to the Ohio High School Speech League for its 2015 state tournament, which will be March 6 and 7 at Canfield and Boardman high schools.

The money comes from the county’s hotel bed tax.

More than 900 students from more than 80 schools and more than 200 judges are expected to be on hand for the competition, said Linda Macala, county convention and visitors bureau director.