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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Belmont County will be working with a budget comparable to that of 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Belmont County Commissioners J.P. Dutton, Josh Meyer and Jerry Echemann gave an overview Wednesday, saying a conservative fiscal policy in years prior to the pandemic and the frugal habits of many department staffs were invaluable, along with funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
Dutton said the total appropriation for 2021 is about $22,800,000 -- identical to last year's budget.
"In general, we are in a pretty healthy fiscal position for what this year has been like. When we get the final numbers for 2020, we do anticipate there was a decrease in sales tax revenue but we don't have those final numbers yet. There were some indications of things picking up toward the end of the year," Dutton said.
"The CARES Act money is the biggest reason why we ended the year the way we did," he said.
That federal funding was able to fill some of the deficit that was happening from sales tax activity."
Dutton also referred to the board's conservative spending.
"We feel strongly that the reduction of budgets and the elimination of existing debt, particularly old existing debt, those are payments we're not going to have to make in 2021. We think those moves two, three years ago really assisted in being able to weather this year in terms of finances as a county government," he said.
He said there were no major reductions in this year's budget.
"We've been making significant cuts in the past three years in general," Dutton said, adding this includes the commissioners' office. "There's not much more room honestly for reductions unless you start getting into service reductions, layoffs."
Dutton said there have been no layoffs or furloughs so far.
"We're proud of that, too," he said.
The commissioners also thanked Anthony Rocchio, who served as Belmont County's auditor for 2020, having been appointed in 2019 after the death of Roger Conroy, who died during his term in office. Newly elected Auditor Cindi Henry was recently sworn in and will work with commissioners going into 2021.
Meyer and Echemann echoed Duttons comments, pointing out the county may have entered 2020 with confidence but no one could have anticipated COVID-19.
The sheriff's budget has consistently accounted for the largest portion of the county's expenses, and the commissioners had increased that budget while cutting other departments. Some major expenses have stemmed from issues such as overcrowding at the 144-bed Belmont County Jail, which had incurred costs of housing inmates outside of the county. This year, the courts and sheriff worked to keep the inmate population down whenever possible to avoid COVID-19 exposure in close quarters.
"In general, we did spend less money in 2019 than 2020 in terms of housing prisoners out of the county," Dutton said.
However, there have also been additional expenses arising from coronavirus preparations and precautions.
"There was follow-up money at the end of 2020 due to changes in CARES Act," Dutton said. The sheriff's office had a budget of $5.5 million for 2020. During recent budget hearings, Sheriff David Lucas asked for a budget of close to $6.8 million.
Dutton said the sheriff's budget for this year is $3,413,215.57, supplemented with CARES Act dollars for a total of about $6 million.
"It's up, but it's almost $900,000 less than his request," Dutton said.
Some of the increases included raises in salaries for unionized employees at the sheriff's office, vehicle needs, and additional personnel needs.
The commissioners said a major project to be considered this year is expanding the jail. Dutton said this could be either an expansion of the existing facility or construction of an additional building.