Salary line items cut 10 percent

With only the general fund money currently certified by the Lawrence County Budget Commission, the commissioners passed a 2017 temporary general fund budget at their meeting Thursday.

The temporary budget, meaning it is subject to change, is set for the whole year. However, Commissioner Bill Pratt said he didn’t expect there to be significant changes when the time comes to pass the permanent budget.

“As a general rule, most of these line items will stay the same,” Pratt said.

At the previous commission meeting, Pratt said he didn’t expect next year’s budget to be a very good one with the cuts in Medicaid sales taxes in the state of Ohio. Sales taxes in Lawrence County are 1.5 percent, and make up about 60 percent of the budget. With roughly 20,000 people in Lawrence County on Medicaid, it leaves a significant decrease in the budget.

“We started with what each office holder spent, then subtracted 10 percent,” Pratt said. “For example, A00 was $428,000 short, so in order to fix that, we had to cut every salary portion 10 percent.”

The 10 percent cut doesn’t affect the office holders, however, does affect the salaries of the staff in each office.

Pratt also said that another example was cutting the out of county jail expenses from $790,000 to $752,000.

Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Burcham said that he didn’t want to complain about the cuts, but that he wanted all offices to be aware of money that becomes available throughout the year as it gets certified, and that he wanted the commissioners to start examining where certain money is being spent a little more.

“If you’re asking us to evaluate where we’re spending, all I’m asking is for you to do the same,” Burcham said.

Commissioner Freddie Hayes Jr. said he agreed, and suggested having a monthly meeting starting next year with the commissioners, as well as all of the office holders, to lay everything out on the table and go over and discuss concerns and issues.

A commission meeting to go over the rest of the budget is set for 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Also at commission, the commissioners:

• Approved and signed the weekly invoices and certificates as presented by the Auditor’s office.

• Approved two floodplain permits.

• Received and filed the Dog Warden Report, dated Nov. 19, 2016.

• Accepted the resignation of Tim Crank from the ADHAMS Board, effective Dec. 15, 2016.

• Approved one transfer fund.

• Received and filed the Certificate of Total Appropriations of Estimated Resources.

• Approved and signed the contract for Southern Ohio Trenching and Excavating for the Memorial Hall sidewalk project.

• Approved and signed the Amendment Request for CDBG grants as requested by Cindy Anderson, of the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization (CAO).

• Approved and signed the ODOT Local-Let Agreement for SHV Bridge Load Rating project and adopted a motion to authorize the county engineer to enter into an agreement with ODOT for the Bridge Loading Rating project for Lawrence County.

• Approved and signed the ODOT Local-Let Agreement for County Road 5 and County Road 29 Resurfacing project and adopted a motion to authorize the county engineer to enter into an agreement with ODOT on behalf of Lawrence County.

• Approved and signed the ODOT Local-Let Agreement for Law PM Various Routes 2018 project and adopted a motion to authorize the county engineer to enter into an agreement with ODOT on behalf of Lawrence County.

• Approved and signed the Construction Change Order for the County/Township Joint Resurfacing 2016, for final adjustments in quantities.

• Approved and signed the Construction Change Order for the County/Village Joint Resurfacing 2016, for final adjustments in quantities.

• Approved and signed the OPWC Appendix E-Disbursement Request Form and Certification.

• Approved and signed the OPWC Appendix E-Disbursement Request Form and Certification Request.

• Approved out of county travel as requested by DJFS Director Terry Porter.