A mandate from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has ruled Ohio has unlawfully collected sales taxes on Medicaid managed care organizations, according to Butler County Finance Director Tawana Keels.
“The impact for Butler County is about $3.1 million … So we’re looking to the state legislators to come up with an alternative solution to mitigate the financial impact on counties. As of today I’m not aware of a solution,” Keels said.
Keels said the various office holders and department heads have requested a total of $97.3 million worth of general fund dollars and $12 million in capital requests for next year, but they will need to get to $92.2 million to balance the budget.
“We’ll make cuts,” Commissioner Don Dixon said. “That’s where we have to have discussions with office holders and try to figure where we are and how we’re going to get to where we need to be …”
Commissioner T.C. Rogers is not pleased.
“The federal government has been doing a lot of thing here within the last 60 days. … our jaw drops at how fast things are coming out,” Rogers said.
The total expenses for all funds was marked at $372.4 million in the tax budget for next year but with the budget submissions Keels said the total now stands at $392.4 million.
The county was anticipating a $2.3 million — or 5.4 percent — jump in sales taxes next year, but Keels has trimmed that back to about $41.5 million.
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