Cuyahoga County said today it faces an $18 million budget deficit by year's end. And the City of Columbus expects a huge budget gap. As deficits swirl around Ohio, WOSU reports how Franklin County looks in the midst of big shortfalls.
As the City of Columbus faces a $75 million deficit with possible cuts to services like police officers and firefighters, Franklin County seems to be fairing well.
"So far we haven't heard any word of needed cuts. It's simply kind of holding fast on our current expenses."
Franklin County Treasurer Ed Leonard said the county is in good shape. But it's moving cautiously on next year's budget.
"We have been asked by the county's office of budget management to keep our budget at, the 2009 budget, at the same level as the 2008 budget," Leonard said.
Franklin County Administrator Don Brown said the county's number one money maker, the sales tax, is slightly ahead of projections, but down compared to 2007. Brown suspects that's because the sales tax rate was reduced at the start of the year. He said other revenue categories are either in line or flat compared to last year, except for the real estate transfer tax. Brown predicts it to be down by about a $1 million this year.
"And that reflects what everyone knows, and that is that residential real estate sales are down that housing sales are down," he said.
Brown, though, is convinced Franklin County has enough funds to last through the economic slump which he said may last for another year or so. "We're always looking for areas to improve our efficiency and performance. So we may make cuts where programs are not performing well or where we can operate more efficiently, where we can trim costs. But we don't expect to cut back on the essential services the county is delivering," Brown said. But there's a caveat: if federal and state funds are slashed the county may have to trim public safety or other services.
"Should federal and state cuts be passed through to the counties that may impact to some extent our ability to contract for services in the community or to deliver services," Brown noted.
Franklin County has a total operating budget of more than $1.5 billion.