LISBON — Columbiana County commissioners approved slightly higher appropriations for the 2025 general fund than what they approved last year at this time for 2024, but with the future of the 1 percent sales tax looming overhead.

“If we can’t pass it in May, there’s going to be some drastic adjustments (to the budget),” Commissioner Mike Halleck said after the meeting.

Voters gave a resounding no to the commissioners’ request for renewal of the 1 percent sales tax for five more years, with the sales tax renewal failing badly at the polls last week. More than 73 percent of the voters voted against the sales tax.

Commissioners have two more chances to place the 1 percent sales tax renewal on the ballot before it expires at the end of December 2025, with plans to seek renewal again in the May primary.

Last year, the 1 percent sales tax receipts totaled $14,468,375 and the half percent sales tax receipts totaled $7,234,684 for a total of more than $21.7 million.

So far this year, the revenue for the 1 percent sales tax totals $11,896,948 through October. Added with the half percent of $5,948,446 so far through October, the total stands at $17,845,394 with two months to go.

“This county cannot operate with $14 million less dollars,” Halleck said.

He said previously that the 1.5 percent sales tax income accounts for 70 percent of the county general fund revenue. The county general fund pays for the majority of county operations, including every office in the courthouse, all the courts, the sheriff’s office, housing of prisoners at the privately-operated county jail, veterans services, the board of elections, the coroner’s office, the prosecutor’s office and criminal defense for indigent defendants.

The 2025 appropriations approved for the general fund totaled $23,096,694, based on estimated revenue of $23,099,230, with most offices receiving a slight increase from this year’s appropriations. Budget requests from the various offices submitted earlier this year totaled $26,291,435, so commissioners had to do some cutting to fit within the estimated revenue number.

The appropriations for 2024, which were approved last year at this time, totaled $22,442,578, based on estimated revenue at the time of $23,038,230. Since then, more funds have been appropriated for the general fund throughout the year.

The commissioners said very little when they approved the 2025 general fund appropriations, but one woman in the audience at the end of the meeting questioned how they could have the budget ready for 2025 when the 1 percent sales tax didn’t pass last week. She suggested having town halls where people could say where they would like to see the money go.

Halleck explained that the sales tax doesn’t expire until the end of 2025 so that income will still be available in 2025. He said they can have all the meetings they want on the sales tax, and they do plan on having meetings, but “the way that was written was very deceiving.”

He blamed the ballot language for the loss, saying he’s talked to people around the county who thought it was a new tax and that was not the case. It’s the same tax people have been paying for years on their taxable purchases.

The ballot language didn’t make it clear that this was a continuation of an existing tax.

For the 2025 general fund appropriations, the biggest number belonged to housing of prisoners at $4.3 million, followed by the sheriff’s office at $4.2 million, the prosecutor’s office at $1.7 million, veterans services at $1.2 million and more than $1 million for Common Pleas Court.

Halleck explained that the county pays a flat fee for housing of prisoners, which he said was the best contract for cost control, capped at 3 percent for inflation. He said if the county was paying a price per inmate, because of inflation the cost would have been off the charts. He said the cost of the contract is actually $4 million, but he built in additional funds for medical costs for inmates, which the county must pay as long as an inmate is in custody. So far in 2024, that cost is $389,000 and could top off at $400,000 by the time the year ends.

Halleck said the sheriff’s office’s last two budgets were the largest in the county. Savings from the jail being privately run have been incorporated in the sheriff’s budget, he said, with a cruiser rotation program and equipment purchases covered.

Right now, he said the county is in the best financial shape ever, with virtually no debt, one of the best bond ratings ever and one of the lowest budgets for a county this size, estimated at just over 100,000 in 2023.

He did some checking and found Wood County has a population of 130,000 and has a $46 million general fund. Washington County has a smaller population at 59,000 yet has a general fund budget of $23.9 million. Trumbull County has a population of 200,000 and a general fund budget of $51 million.

Halleck also pointed out that the county government doesn’t collect property tax, with the exception of .2 mills of inside millage that has to be used for debt retirement. A previous board of commissioners years ago made a deal with taxpayers to not collect 2 mills of property tax in exchange for passage of the sales tax.

Here are a few of the other amounts appropriated for 2025:

— commissioners, $612,966

— commissioners maintenance, $716,508

— auditor, $337,365

— auditor personal property, $52,920

— auditor weights and measures, $57,000

— auditor GIS program, $110,250

— auditor data processing, $150,000

— board of elections, $687,089

— treasurer, $374,844

— juvenile court, $582,820

— juvenile probation, $308,963

— probate court, $355,648

— prosecutor, $1,805,895

— common pleas court, $1,124,533

— common pleas court security, $62,474

— adult probation, $424,848

— clerk of courts, $1,005,832

— county municipal court, $955,733

— county coroner, $341,775

— development department, $100,769

— recorder, $306,245

— criminal defense (indigent), $800,000

— multi county juvenile attention system, $546,105.

mgreier@mojonews.com