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No drama on VSC budget request

LISBON — What a difference a year makes.

About this time last year the Columbiana County Veterans Services Commission was threatening to again sue county commissioners if they failed to provide the VSC with the amount of funding it was seeking.

When the VSC met with commissioners last week to go over its 2019 budget request, there was no talk of any lawsuits because the VSC is requesting the same amount of funding it asked for this year and was appropriated, and commissioners are apparently OK with that.

Commissioner Mike Halleck, who usually drafts the county general fund budget, said after the meeting they would provide the VSC with the $708,470 it requested.

“We’re very appreciative of their cooperation,” he said when asked for comment.

The VSC took commissioners to court in December 2016 after they adopted a 2017 budget that excluded the additional funding it was seeking. The lawsuit was resolved in mid 2017 when commissioners provided the VSC with the additional $37,000 it sought, which commissioners said they intended to do all along once additional revenue came in.

The VSC threatened to take legal action again last December when commissioners again declined to provide it with the additional funding being sought for 2018. The dispute was resolved several weeks later when commissioners took the $54,063 in unspent 2017 funds returned by the VSC and gave them $50,000 of it back to reach the $708,000 the agency had requested.

Under state law, the VSC is entitled to funding equal to what 0.5-mill in property taxes would generate, which in 2019 would be $883,100. The VSC has always asked commissioners for less than it is entitled to by law.

Commissioners deliberately underfund county offices with the promise additional money will be provided later in the year as it comes in, and this practice always works because the county budget commission is purposely conservative in its revenue estimates.

tgiambroni@mojonews.com

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