By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com
JEFFERSON — Ashtabula County’s general fund will ring out one of the most difficult years in recent memory with a projected $971,360 carryover balance.
The carryover is unencumbered cash that the county will need to make payroll, pay benefits and other expenses incurred in the first couple months of the new year, before sales and real-estate tax collections flow into the coffers.
The figure is based upon revenues of $20.026 million for 2009. That’s a volatile figure that could rise slightly if consumers start spending more money and thereby generate more sales-tax income for the county. The popularity of the Cash for Clunkers program gives county officials some hope that could happen.
The new figure also takes into account all the transfers and account sweeps the Board of Commissioners decided to take to offset falling revenues.
Commissioners cut most appropriations by 10 percent last month. Many county offices have closed one day a week and furloughed employees to make up for the losses in revenue.
The Board of Commissioners has not heard from Judge Charles Hague as to how he plans to trim his budget to bring it in line with the new appropriations. Hague is Probate and Juvenile courts judge and controls the Youth Detention Center budget. Commissioners are concerned the courts will run out of money before the year is up if spending is not curbed.
Budget analyst James Hardin said that as part of an effort to give commissioners and elected officials a more accurate picture of county finances, transfers out of the courts’ special accounts are being handled directly from the accounts rather than through the general fund.
