At this point the 2025 spending plan is fluid — the commissioners will approve the final budget in December — but estimates show $126.4 million worth of general fund expenses are expected to be paid for with $128.7 million in revenues, a 3.7% increase over this year’s spending plan. Revenues are expected to jump 5.4% over this year’s budget.
The general fund is the main operational fund, but there are a number of entities that rely on outside resources such as state and federal funding, service fees like water and sewer and independent tax levies. All funds combined, the total spending plan for next year amounts to $501 million with revenues totaling $428.3 million.
For many years the commissioners have required a structurally balanced general fund budget, meaning planned operational spending matches recurring revenues and carryover — which should reach around $157 million — isn’t required to pay bills.
The special funding sources are fluid so those budgets can’t really be structurally balanced. For example the sheriff’s Targeted Community Alternatives to Prison (TCAP) program receives a set amount of funding each year from the state, but they may save up for a larger project and spend it all at once, so what’s coming in isn’t the same as what is going out in a given year.
County Administrator Judi Boyko said the proposed budget reflects the commissioners’ primary goals for the county’s spending.
“There really have been three themes that have resonated, protect the taxpayers’ money, be cognizant of the macro economy and our revenue sources and define the right size of county government,” she said. “During COVID and post-COVID there were so many fluctuations in the economy that it was challenging to forecast and achieve those primary objectives. Fast-forward to now where we’ve had several years of stability in sales tax, property taxes, those types of receipts, I have a higher degree of confidence because of that historic stability.”
Revenues remained strong throughout the pandemic and sales tax — which is the engine that drives county government — collections jumped 32% from 2020 through 2023. They have budgeted $56.5 million for next year. According to the Ohio Department of Taxation, the county has collected $44.5 million in the first nine months of this year. If the $5 million per month collections continue the county should end up with nearly $60 million from sales tax collections.
Officials here were concerned all of the federal pandemic relief dollars flooding into people’s pockets might skew their sales tax numbers, but collections haven’t waned as the federal funding has expired.
Income on investments have also exploded, growing 316.6% from $2.6 million in 2021 to $10.8 million last year. This revenue source is directly tied to interest rates and the county has collected $10.6 million which is 67% or $4.2 million more than last year as of the end of August and budgeted $8 million for next year.
The expenditure increase amounts to $4.3 million and the bulk of that, around $3 million, is going for merit raises. Several offices within the justice system are moving positions from other special fund categories into the general fund. The rest is mainly due to a contracted health insurance increase and some other elected officials doling out raises above the recommended 3%.
Finance Director Dave McCormick said there weren’t any surprises in the budgets the various entities submitted, his directive on behalf of the commissioners to everyone was simple and standard.
“As we continue to deal with the residual economic effects of the pandemic, ongoing inflationary pressures and the continued possibility of an economic recession, we ask for your continued support and adherence to conservative budgeting and operations for the remainder of 2024 and throughout 2025,” he wrote.
Commissioner Cindy Carpenter told the Journal-News she is satisfied with what has been proposed for next year..
“I think that the county is in great shape and we also have good elected officials who we can trust,” she said. “We may have to tweak a few things here or there but usually the budgets are submitted in a way that’s fair and I don’t see much change happening.”
Sheriff Richard Jones is first up for the budget hearings on Monday. His budget gets tricky every three years when all six of the bargaining units within his huge operation — there are roughly 400 employees — renegotiate their contracts. That’s happening next year, so the tentative $57.3 million — general fund expenses are estimated at $49 million — expense budget will increase, the unanswered question is how much.
Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer said they are already collecting comparables from other similar agencies to get ready for negotiations.
“Surrounding contracts have been very interesting, there’s some people that have received significant changes in their pay and their structure,” Dwyer said. “I think we’re going to go into the contract negotiations, most of it comes down to the financials, we don’t have a lot of issues other than financial issues that are at stake.”
The sheriff’s Finance Director Vickie Barger budgeted a 3% increase for wages next year — the amount the commissioners have asked everyone to stick to for non-union workers, based on the pay-for-performance plan — so anything negotiated beyond that will be additional.
The last time the contracts were ratified in 2022, the sheriff’s deputies, and their supervisors agreed to 3% pay hikes per year and corrections officers, their supervisors, dispatchers and clerical specialists got 2.5%. All also received some other incentives which made the total hike around 4%, according to Barger. For next year, “if they go above my projected 3% then I’d say every percent would add an additional $100,000-plus.”
Union negotiations and budget hearings in some respects were antagonistic years ago, but Commissioner T.C. Rogers told the Journal-News both have become much easier in recent years because a trust has been built throughout the county.
Dealing with what is happening outside the county is more challenging.
“It’s probably one of the more critical times, you don’t know what’s going to happen after the election, because it depends upon who gets elected and there’s vastly different policies,” Rogers said. “It looks like next year could be steady but the elephant in the room is getting a budget through, we’re able to get ours but they can’t get theirs.”
The county expects to have available resources totaling $266.2 million in the general fund — according to the tax budget — but Boyko is recommending the commissioners keep nearly $90 million — about nine months worth of operating expenses — in reserve as a precaution.
Also tentatively built into the budget is the $16 million budget stabilization fund, $15 million for the capital reserve fund that is financing space reutilization projects, $6 million for capital projects and $5 million for the county engineer’s annual paving program. That leaves a $14 million ending cash balance.
Commissioner Don Dixon is a self-proclaimed pessimist where budgets are concerned and has forewarned other officials about potential hiring freezes and other cost cutting measures in recent years. Even in these uncertain political times he told the Journal-News he is optimistic about the county’s financial position.
“We’ve got such a diversified employer base and sales base, I think we’re in really a sweet spot,” Dixon said. “As far as being able to rely on our numbers and not have to worry about things changing drastically six or eight months down the road. I want to say I think the economy is picking up steam, I know it’ll make some difference who gets in, but I don’t think either one is going to have a huge impact on our 2025 budget.”
The commissioners have given property taxpayers breaks in recent years, rolling back the entire $18.5 million property tax collection in 2022. This year they waived the estimated $6 million property tax windfall they could have collected as a result of the average 37% property value hike.
The commissioners historically do not discuss tax breaks until it comes time to pass the final budget and it will take official action to waive the tax revenue. Boyko said it will be discussed.
“The three commissioners are keenly aware of the dynamics of the economy, keenly aware of how it’s impacting the residents in our county,” she said. “And I know that as the budget gets formed that will be something that’s very prominent in their deliberations.”
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