Commissioners approve “live within its means” budget

CANTON No major cuts in services, a modest increase in spending to cover mainly higher health insurance costs and 2 percent raises.

That was the main theme of the 2020 General Fund and Criminal Justice operations budget Stark County commissioners approved Tuesday.

Its passage about four weeks before the start of the New Year may be the earliest budget commissioners have adopted.

Usually, the three-member board holds hearings after Thanksgiving to decide county departments' request for funding for new personnel or new contracted services.

But Chris Nichols, county budget director, said that a 13% increase in health insurance premium costs and 2% raises to help employees cover those increases ate up much of the modest 3% increase in expected revenue. So commissioners didn't hold any budget hearings because they lacked enough money to fund any major new spending.

Stark County Commissioner Richard Regula called it a "conservative budget but a good budget." He referred to a slide of Nichols' presentation.

"It says the county must live within our means," he said, reaffirming the slide's points that spending should only increase if the county has new revenue and not use carry-over funds to sustain it.

"We do build this budget for ... three years out. Instead of when I was here the first time (in 2003) we basically went day-by-day or year-by-year. And we would spend what we had. And if we didn't have it, we didn't spend it. By projecting three years out, that's a credit to Chris and (Stark County Administrator) Brant (Luther) that we stay within our means."

Regula said the commissioners now meet once a month to get an update on the county's finances so "things don't get out of whack before we address them."

Here are some highlights:

' Total general fund and criminal justice sales tax revenue increased from $70 million in 2018 to a projected $72.25 million in 2019, an hike of about 3.2 percent. That doesn't include a one-time $2.68 million reimbursement in 2018 from the issuance of bonds to finance the county's purchase and renovation of the Midtown Building. Total revenue is expected to increase 3.1 percent to $74.5 million in 2020.

' That 6.5 percent sales tax you and other Stark County shoppers paid added up to $29.23 million in 2018 and grew to a projected $30.05 million in 2019. Nichols is predicting it will rise another 1 to 2 percent in 2020.

' The state has increased how much it reimburses for the legal costs of court-appointed counsel and public defenders for indigent defendants; the county expects to earn more in investment income as investments with lower yields are reinvested in securities that pay slightly higher yields; and Nichols expects slightly more sales tax revenue from a slightly improving economy. However, Nichols believes record high conveyance fee revenue from the hot housing market the past few years is unsustainable and will decline in 2020.

' The increasing number of health insurance claims by county employees means county agencies funded by the general and criminal justice funds will have to contribute another $895,000 to the county's self-funded health insurance fund.

' The cost of 2% pay raises to help offset some of the 13% health insurance premiums borne by county employees will be $844,000 in 2020, including corresponding increase in pension benefits, Medicare taxes and Workers' Compensation premiums.

' The county's contribution to the Multi-County Juvenile Attention System will decline to $3.7 million from $4.2 million a few years ago as Stark County Family Court works to direct juveniles to programs that don't involve incarceration.

'The Stark County Board of Elections got $403,161 more for 2020 to fund a high-turnout presidential election primary in March and high-turnout presidential election in November.

‚' The Stark County Sheriff's Office, the largest county agency, gets $23.88 million, a 3% increase. Sheriff George Maier had requested $25.2 million. The commissioners declined his request to fund the equivalent of more than 19 additional full-time employees but provided an additional $61,327 to cover the higher costs of medical care and meals for jail inmates.

Regula said when voters approved adoption of the county's criminal justice 0.5 percent sales tax in 2011, officials forecast it would raise $21 million a year in contrast with this year's projected $30 million. He said another economic downturn could cause sales tax revenue to significantly contract. And the commissioners had to be conservative in how much the county spends to provide enough reserves.

Reach Repository writer Robert Wang at (330) 580-8327 or [email protected]. Twitter: @rwangREP.

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