Scioto County commissioners issued a blunt warning to elected officeholders: The county does not have enough money to cover nearly $30 million in budget requests, and painful cuts are coming.
Commissioner Scottie Powell said county offices have been told for nearly two years that money is tight and that they need to freeze wages, cut expenses, and hold the line on spending.
Instead, many submitted requests that were even higher than in previous years.
“The officeholders at this point know that we will have roughly $22 million to allocate,” Powell said. “The requests we received this year are close to $30 million. Those two things don’t align.”
Powell said some officeholders reduced their requests, but many did not.
“We saw some that we’ve been having ongoing conversations with to cut the budget request more than they ever have,” he said.
Commissioners Expect to Take the Blame
Powell said commissioners are placed in the position of making the cuts after other elected officials submit budgets the county cannot afford.
“By default, we get to be the bad guys and go through and cut,” he said.
He said officeholders can then tell employees they wanted to provide raises or maintain staffing, but commissioners would not give them the money.
“The reality is that the Budget Commission determines how much we have to allocate, and we have to look at it,” Powell said.
Commissioners approve the amount each office receives, but they do not decide how many employees an office hires or how much those workers are paid.
Powell said that distinction becomes important later in the year when an office runs short of money.
“There’s always this game at the end of the year: ‘Well, I can’t pay my people,’” he said. “It’s always, ‘You shut down the entire office for a month or two,’ or we figure out how to find the money.”
This year, Powell warned, there may not be extra money available to rescue offices that overspend.
“I’m not sure there’s going to be money come November,” he said. “It looks like the officeholders are going to be running the offices by themselves.”
Child Services Costs Threaten County Finances
Powell said the county’s continuing crisis over the cost of caring for children with complex needs makes the situation even more serious.
Commissioners recently warned that rapidly rising placement costs and delayed federal reimbursements could push Scioto County into fiscal watch or fiscal emergency.
“That’s not being overdramatic,” Powell said. “That’s math.”
He said the county cannot continue approving business-as-usual spending while Children Services expenses threaten to overwhelm the budget.
“Everyone Is Critical”
Powell said a common response from officeholders is that every employee and every expense is essential.
“There’s a recurring theme that most, but not all, are saying: ‘I can’t cut. Everyone is critical,’” he said.
However, with requests exceeding available revenue by approximately $8 million, commissioners say something will have to give.
“Very real conversations need to be had,” Powell said. “It’s going to come to a head, and of course we’ll get blamed for it.”
Smith: County Is Bleeding Money
Commissioner Merit Smith agreed that some county offices appear to be spending as though commissioners will find additional money before the end of the year.
“It appears the county is bleeding money, and we’re doing that because people are overspending on their budgets,” Smith said.
He said some officeholders may believe commissioners will eventually cover their shortages, as they have sometimes managed to do in the past.
“Honestly, I think they believe we will come up with the money to take care of it at the end of the year,” Smith said. “Appearances are that money is not going to be there.”
Smith said officeholders will have to make difficult decisions about staffing, wages, and other expenses.
“Officeholders are going to have to make some real hard decisions,” he said. “We’ve been talking about this for at least a year.”
