Trumbull official fears mishandling of insurance fund surplus

WARREN

One of the people who publicly opposed a proposal by Trumbull County officials last spring for an increase in the county sales tax said he hopes county officials will resist the temptation to use a recent financial windfall unnecessarily.

“I guess it’s human nature” to consider spending extra money, said Ron Knight, a Republican member of the Trumbull County Board of Elections and a retired educator.

In late June, the Ohio Auditor’s Office told county officials in a management letter that came out around the same time as the county’s annual state audit that the county had too much money in its insurance fund.

The fund holds money set aside to pay claims from the county’s self-insured health-care program for employees, who contribute 10 percent of the cost.

County Auditor Adrian Biviano and the county commissioners agreed that a safe amount to keep in the fund is $3 million to $4 million, meaning the account contained at least $6 million more than needed.

The county commissioners decided in August to “spend down” the health-insurance fund

Knight said he has some concerns, including the “lack of transparency” regarding the way the commissioners decided to handle the insurance money.

“The public has a right to know,” he said, adding that the county commissioners called a news conference in April to announce that they would not be increasing the sales tax – a decision that saved the taxpayers about $6 million per year.

“But they did not hold a press conference to announce this,” he said of moving the $6 million to the general fund.

Read more about plans for the money in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.