Summit County budget crunched by low revenue and public toll of drug abuse

Dec. 12--By Doug Livingston

Beacon Journal staff writer

With an understaffed jail and the heavy toll of an opioid epidemic, Summit County government is poised to spend a little more on mental health and addiction services, the criminal justice system and child custody cases and other growing needs.

But not nearly what it spent eight years ago.

Poised to approve the next annual budget on Monday, County Council plans to spend $514 million in 2017, down 1.7 percent from 2016.

All told, though, spending is down $62 million since 2008, when the county had 850 more employees. 2008 also is a benchmark year county administrators use to illustrate the impact of the recession on revenues, which have declined with property values, and expenses, which tend to rise with poverty and the need for social services.

The budget is actually broken into two parts. The first includes agencies that draw revenue from levies, including the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Service Board, the Children Services Board and Developmental Disabilities Board.

But it's the second, the general fund, that gets most of the attention. This roughly $112 million chunk of the overall proposed spending accounts for the sheriff's office ($31.4 million), the county court system ($22.9 million), the executive's office ($8.8 million), the prosecutor's office ($5.7 million), the fiscal office ($4.9 million), the board of elections ($4.7 million) and other agencies that broadly serve Summit County residents.

Budgeting concerns

There are the usual concerns, like rising health care costs and lower revenue -- whether due to declining property values or lingering state cuts to local government funds.

Then there are the unique and new concerns, like an understaffed jail with a budget strained by overtime or a opioid epidemic that is tearing through department coffers.

The heroin scourge isn't just stacking up bodies. Along with poverty, it's being offered by county administrators as a reason for the 13.5 percent spike in the number of children in custody.

Under the proposed 2017 budget, Children Services gets an 8.5 percent funding increase. But it has to draw on carryover funds and reserves to meet a $7.7 million revenue shortfall. Brian Nelsen, the county budget director, anticipates the agency will need to pass a new levy by the time the next renewal is up in 2018.

Also concerning Nelsen is the potential loss of federal revenue from Medicaid clients if federal lawmakers repeal the Affordable Care Act, as leadership has promised to put first on its agenda.

Some 12,000 Summit County residents became eligible for subsidized health insurance when Ohio Gov. John Kasich expanded Medicaid coverage under the national law in 2014, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and U.S. Census data. All in poverty, it is these newly eligible recipients who county officials say have flooded public service providers to access job training, medical treatment and other resources.

Another top concern is the loss of local revenue after federal lawmakers decided that Ohio will no longer be allowed to collect hundreds of millions of dollars per year in Medicaid matching funds by taxing insurers who provide Medicaid. Nelsen is waiting to see if Kasich and state legislators will step in to hold local governments harmless from the revenue loss, which is projected to strike a $1.1 billion blow to state coffers over the next two-year budget.

Jailhouse blues

Summit County Sheriff Steve Barry asked council for $32.3 million to operate next year, including $22.3 to run the county jail. The 2017 proposed budget would provide nearly $1 million less, almost all subtracted from his request for jail funding.

"They have a job to do, which is look at the numbers and make the best of it," Barry said, adding that he appreciates what council and the executive do as they surely appreciate county safety services. "But there is a point in which efficiency reaches a point when it's a safety factor. And we have reached that point."

Council's proposed funding would put the sheriff's office $3.2 million below pre-recession levels, though other agencies have fared far worse.

Nelson calculates the sheriff's operating budget dropped 10.1 percent from 2008 to 2016. In that time, cuts of 19 to 40 percent fell on the county executive, elections board and fiscal office.

Regardless, nine years with fewer deputies and funding has pushed the jail to a breaking point.

With a wing already closed and inmates shipped to Geauga County, Barry wanted the extra money to hire 30 deputies and bring back some of the six civilians who used to run programs that, before they were cut, helped inmates cope and reform.

Two gyms for inmates are now used for storage. The library is closed. Counseling for anger management is limited. Deputies are working "a tremendous amount of overtime" and rules prohibiting the placement of violent and nonviolent inmates together in cells have been loosened.

"We are not overcrowded, we are severely understaffed," said Barry, who estimated that 85 to 88 percent of inmates are awaiting felony charges and can't afford bond, while 30 to 40 percent have mental issues.

The opioid epidemic has made matters worse.

"There are not enough rehab beds in Northeast Ohio, and I'm not just talking about Summit County," said Barry. Prisoners are ordered to stay in jail until a treatment facility bed opens up. After the opioid epidemic hit Summit County hard this summer, that wait has grown from a week or two to three months or more.

"It's taken our number very high [in terms] of staffing-to-inmate ratios," Barry said. "It is a vicious cycle. There's no end in sight."

Labor contract

Also looming over the county budget is the end of a labor contract with sheriff's deputies.

The current contract expires Dec. 31. Negotiations have stalled as the county and Fraternal Order of Police discuss pay, overtime, vacation and the housing of inmates outside the county.

It will be two years in January since the county closed the smallest wing of the Summit County Jail to meet budget and staffing shortfalls. It costs, on average, $121 per inmate per day in Summit County. In Geauga County, it costs $55 per inmate per day.

If a new contract isn't inked by Jan. 1, officers would operate under the current contract but receive no cost-of-living pay increase -- which totaled 2.25 percent this year and could be later written into the new contract.

Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug .

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