T-L File Photo Martins Ferry Mayor John Davies, front left, recently recommended that the city reject proposed changes to the way Belmont County allocates local government funds. Also shown are Service/Safety Director Andy Sutak, council President Kristine Davis, back left, and Clerk Kay McFarlan.

BELMONT COUNTY is proposing changes to the way it allocates local government funding, but its most populous municipality “strongly disagrees” with the new methodology.

According to Ohio Revised Code, counties must distribute funding provided by the state to their political subdivisions — municipalities, townships and park districts — in one of two ways: They can use a statutory method based on need, or they can use an alternative formula, which must be reviewed and accepted by the subdivisions every five years. According to county Auditor Cindi Henry, none of Ohio’s 88 counties uses the statutory formula, but it was time to update the alternative formula that contained provisions that she said could not be justified and had likely been in place since the 1960s.

“It was long overdue,” she said of the need to revise the formula.

In February, Henry reached out to all local government entities with a letter and held a meeting to inform them that it was time to review the county’s allocation formula. At that meeting, she said all of the townships agreed that their share of the funding should be split equally among them. That means each of the 16 townships in the county would get 1.63% of the $2,156,741 to be allocated, or $35,047.05 each. The total combined allocation to townships would amount to 26% of the funding at $560,752.80.

The 13 park districts within the county would receive a combined 5% of the total funding at 0.38%, or $8,295.16, each. Previously, districts in Pease and Union townships received about half as much money as the other 11 park districts.

A 2.3% reduction to the funds allocated to park districts was divided equally among municipalities with a population under 1,000. Park districts do not get to vote on whether to accept the funding formula, but the townships and municipalities do.

Belmont County itself retains 15% of the funding, or $323,511.15.

The allocations for cities and villages would be based on their populations, which vary widely. The smallest village that lies completely within the county is Wilson, with a population of 48 people according to the 2020 census. It would receive 0.08% of the available funding for an allocation of $1,797.75.

Martins Ferry is the county’s largest city with a 2020 population of 6,260. It would receive 10.87% of the overall funding at $234,460.37.

Since that February meeting, a majority of the townships and municipalities across the county have approved resolutions accepting the proposed funding formula. The Belmont County Board of Commissioners also accepted it, though it had a “veto” vote and the ability to halt its implementation. As the largest city in the county, Martins Ferry also had veto power, and the city council in May decided to reject the proposal at the urging of Mayor John Davies.

The city then submitted a letter to county leaders outlining its reasons for declining the formula.

“While it remains our desire to work with the commissioners, the apportionment method being used appears to have a negative impact to Martins Ferry, affecting both the City and the Park District in ways that may make it impossible to recover. The purpose of electing the alternative apportionment method is to allow a more targeted approach to allocating government funds based on the relative need of the individual communities,” the letter states.

Davies had explained to council that while the city would receive an additional $10,374.99 under the proposed formula, its park district would take a cut of $4,860.96. That would mean a net gain of just $5,514.03 for the community as a whole.

The mayor compared that to much larger increases for Barnesville and St. Clairsville, which amount to $40,767.79 and $50,460.39, respectively.

“While St. Clairsville and Barnesville saw their funding increase substantially over the prior allocation, Martins Ferry’s funding remained stagnant. … This is despite the fact that Martins Ferry is the largest city in Belmont County, employs the largest police force in Belmont County, maintains their own dispatchers (which saves the county money) and has the oldest infrastructure,” the letter from the city notes. “Given the demographics, the relative need of Martins Ferry and the other (Ohio) river communities is higher than the western part of the County. Finally, because of the location of county buildings and projects, St. Clairsville in particular, already benefits significantly from county funds without the need to increase their allocation of local government funds.”

Now that Martins Ferry has rejected the new formula, Henry is asking other political subdivisions to weigh in again — this time on whether to exclude the city from its eligibility for a veto vote.

Chief Deputy Auditor Jacob DeBertrand cited Ohio Revised Code Section 5747.53C in explaining how this is possible. He said state law states that if the largest city within the county has a population of 20,000 or less and a population that is less than 15% of the total county population, both of which apply to Martins Ferry, other political subdivisions can vote on whether to exclude that city from the approval process. If enough subdivisions to represent a majority of the county’s population vote to do so, Martins Ferry will no longer have the ability to veto the proposal, but it will still receive the funding allocation determined by the formula.

“So basically, there’s a provision in the law that says we met these parameters … that all the entities can make a resolution excluding them, basically their approval of the proposed method and that’s what we’re seeing happening right now. … So once we get to half the county population, the calculation will be approved, and that will go into effect next year.”