By ROBERT A. DEFRANK

Times Leader Staff Writer

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Board of Commissioners accepted the 2018 budget for Fiscal 2018 with finances expected to be tight.

Fiscal Officer Barb Blake noted that each fiscal year is divided in half and the budget is prepared in June, based on anticipated tax receipts and revenue. The annual appropriations for departments and expenditures are prepared at the end of the year. The fiscal year runs from January through December.

Total estimated revenue declined from 2017-2018. Projected revenue for Fiscal 2017 was $26,034,000. The estimated total revenue for 2018 is $24,957,220, a decrease of $1,076,780.

As of June 30, this year’s receipts for the general fund totaled $13,760,170.03, or 52.85 percent of the expected total.

Departmental requests for funding in 2017 came to $23,628,874.51; for 2018, requests total $27,776,050, an increase of $4,147,175.57.

Debt-related expenses for 2017 included payments of $250,000 on an existing note for a previous jail expansion. Similar bond expenses in 2018 could be $997,000, since county officials are considering paying off a note from 2005, when the jail was expanded from about 70 beds to 144 beds.

Possible 2018 bond expenses also include a note for $4 million, since the county is considering purchasing or renovating a building for its divisional courts.

There is no building currently under consideration, but the commissioners pointed out a need for additional space for Belmont County Western Division Court and for the Prosecutor’s Office, both of which are located in St. Clairsville.

“They’ve outgrown that facility. It’s too small,” Commissioner Mark Thomas said. “We need better access. They need a place with better parking.”

He added that Northern and Eastern Division county court judges based in Bellaire also have approached the commissioners with a need for more space.

“We’re looking at some of those issues,” Thomas said. “The county auditor has given us a projection as to what we may need should we choose to move forward with renovating a facility, building a facility, what have you.”

Blake reminded all that the recently approved budget serves as a guide for annual appropriations.

“This year, this board’s intent was to emphasize to all the departments to take this as serious as possible, to make their requests as realistic as possible, and then we will take it from there and have our budget meetings with them in the fall,” Blake said. “For 2018 we are expecting a decline in revenue, based on the (managed care organization) sales tax decline.

“For 2018, we have had 16 department request more in 2018 than they did in 2017,” she continued, adding that 16 departments requested a combined increase of $5,085,198.93 for salaries.

However, 21 departments requested less in 2018 than in 2017 for a total decrease of $938,023. Four departments had no net change.

The budget was set to be filed with the county auditor by July 20.

Thomas said the process of forming the budget began in March. The two commissioners who took office in January, J.P. Dutton and Josh Meyer, had wished to begin early to allow time to thoroughly review the budget with officials and department heads.

He added that, according to Belmont County Auditor Andy Sutak, there may be no additional money to appropriate in 2018, and there may be even less money available due to additional proposed state and federal budget cuts.

“We wanted to put them on notice very quickly and timely, that this budget may be the most challenging one since the years 2009 and 2010,” Thomas said, noting the new state budget includes both cuts and unfunded mandates.

“Those are things the state requires us to do under state law but gives us no money to do them,” he said. “That’s why we continue to talk about sales tax reductions. Effective July 1, 2017, with the new budget, we can no longer collect sales tax on (managed care organizations), Medicaid services in Ohio. That was per the federal government to the state of Ohio, and the state of Ohio down to the counties.”

He said the counties have collectively lobbied the Ohio General Assembly to take action regarding the potential loss of sales tax. Thomas said this loss could be in the range of $750,000 or more for Belmont County.

“That MCO issue survived the General Assembly budget but was vetoed by Gov. (John) Kasich,” Thomas said, adding that the Ohio House of Representative overrode the veto regarding the MCO sales tax issue and sent it to the Ohio Senate.

“So here we sit, hoping that the Senate will override that veto and allow the state of Ohio to approach the federal government asking for an increase in franchise fees for these MCOs, that in effect will be money that comes back to Ohio — additional monies that can make counties whole on what we may lose from sales taxes, but that is highly speculative,” Thomas said. “We are at a point where we could feasibly go into 2018 with upwards of $1 million less in projected receipts in 2018 than we have in 2017.”

He said such a shortage of funds could mean cuts to things the commission is not required to fund by Ohio Revised Code. These include the Ohio State University Extension Service, the Belmont County Soil and Water District and funds to local fire departments and emergency medical services.

In addition, Thomas noted that for the past several years the county has foregone it’s 15-percent share of local government funding and passed that money on to the cities and villages. This may change.

“It may be a scenario where the county needs its 15 percent, which over the last few years has been around $225,000,” he said.

The commissioners pointed out other matters could further erode the budget. For example, public defender indigent counsel fees for capital cases had been in the range of $60-$75 per hour. The new state budget establishes rates at $125 per hour to be paid by the county.

“That’s an unfunded mandate where the state changes the law and gives us no money to do it,” he said, adding that the next capital murder case requiring public representation will cost the taxpayers more money.

The commissioners emphasized the importance of continuing to press lawmakers on the issue of oil and gas severance tax, pointing out that considerable tax proceeds are generated from the local area and commissioners believe more of that money should be returned to our region. those funds could be used for road paving. While road use maintenance agreements with oil and gas interests have been invaluable in repairing and paving roads, they said the county’s infrastructure need remains great.

“Belmont County is still strong financially. We have a lot of good people in this courthouse that work every day,” Thomas said, noting that the county’s investments and bond rating remain strong. “We want to remain fiscally strong, fiscally conservative as much as we can. There are certain expenses we cannot control — the courts, public safety, things like that.

“The majority of our county budget is funded by sales tax. When you take a look at that loss that we have projected through the MCOs, and the fact that you have stores closing throughout the county, large stores, you all see it,” he said. “You see sales tax erosion from there.”

On a positive note, Thomas said new stores are expected to open their doors at the Ohio Valley Mall and to contribute to the sales tax revenue. Marshall’s is slated to open at the former site of Elder-Beerman in October, while Levin Furniture recently announced it will move into the building vacated this spring by hhgregg.