Balanced budget doesn’t end Y’town’s fiscal woes

When Youngstown City Council members meet later this month to adopt the 2019 general fund budget, they will find that the projected $2.2 million deficit has been erased.

In other words, what city government brings in, city government will spend.

But while a balanced budget is a good thing for City Hall, it isn’t cause for celebration. That’s because without a surplus, there always will be fiscal anxiety.

Youngstown’s tax base isn’t growing. The closing of Northside Regional Medical Center and the expected idling of the General Motors Lordstown assembly complex mean a decrease in revenue .

Kyle Miasek, the city’s interim finance director, has spent a great deal of time crunching the numbers and says the administration of Mayor Jamael Tito Brown is looking to the future, and is anticipating a reduction in spending.

“We hope to make deeper cuts to have balanced budgets so we don’t have to come here year after year to make cuts,” Miasek said Thursday after meeting with members of city council. “We don’t want to be in hot water again.”

But the only way the hot water can be avoided is if the administration and council have the discipline to say no when it comes to unnecessary spending.

Mayor Brown has again turned to consultant Michael Abouserhal to assist in developing a financial roadmap for city government.

Abouserhal, retired vice president of finance and business services at Cuyahoga Community College, was rehired last month to guide City Hall through the gathering budgetary storm.

His assignment: Assess the city’s financial condition, evaluate the proposed 2019 budget, evaluate the long-term budgetary forecast and assist with the selection of a finance director.

Abouserhal will also help the city figure out what to do if the Ohio Auditor’s Office stands firm on its finding that city government must use general fund money to repay the $5.5 million it inappropriately spent from Youngstown’s water, wastewater and sanitation funds for economic-development projects.

Abouserhal was initially hired last year to review the city’s imploding budget and to make recommendations for how government could avoid state- declared fiscal watch or emergency.

Long-term deficit

The consultant warned that unless drastic action is taken, Youngstown could face a $16 million operating budget deficit in five years.

Among his recommendations: Enact employee furloughs, eliminate raises, increase health insurance premium contributions and lay off workers.

Mayor Brown has been unwilling to “send anybody home,” which reflects his refusal to face the truth: More than 70 percent of the city’s general fund is dedicated to employee costs, including wages and benefits.

It’s foolhardy to think that the projected $16 million budget shortfall in five years can be eliminated without a major shrinking of the payroll.

We have criticized Brown for not adopting all 16 recommendations from the paid consultant and have questioned why he rehired Abouserhal.

It will be a waste of taxpayer dollars – again – if the mayor and city council continue to ignore the expert in public finance.

That’s why we aren’t doing cartwheels over last week’s declaration by Interim Finance Director Miasek that a projected $2.2 million deficit in the proposed 2019-20 general fund budget has been erased.

Miasek, with consultant Abouserhal’s assistance, took an ax to the budget and on Jan. 23 announced to city council he had reduced the deficit to $1.41 million.

On Feb. 7, Miasek met with lawmakers and said he had cut another $977,000 from the proposed spending blueprint.

Then last week, the interim finance director told lawmakers the $433,000 in red ink had been erased.

City council will meet March 11 to review the 2019-20 spending plan, and will then vote on the budget at its March 20 meeting.

It’s worth noting that not a lot of heavy lifting was required to eliminate the $433,000 from the budget. Rather than having to slash the payroll, the city got a $350,000 windfall as a result of a federal grant.

The $350,000 would have been used for road projects including Fifth and Belmont avenues and downtown areas, but a $10.8 million federal grant for transportation projects in the central business district will cover the costs.

Miasek did come up with $66,500 in savings by reducing the payroll, and with $16,500 not spent in 2018.

Once city council has approved the 2019 budget, lawmakers and the Brown administration must get to work on Youngstown’s long-term financial health.