The updated budget approved Friday includes small boosts from the state’s annual sales tax holiday and higher investment returns, as well as a $2.5 million savings from closing certain purchase orders, and some departmental non-personnel cuts. Those changes are now projected to get the county through 2025 with a very thin general fund balance of about $500,000.
“We are balanced for our operating (expenses),” Hutchinson said.
The county’s total annual budget is about $230 million and includes the general fund, special revenue funds such as Job and Family Services and Developmental Disability Services, capital project funds, enterprise funds such as water and sewer, and many more. The general fund, at just over $50 million, includes public safety, public works, courts/judicial, and general administrative costs.
The largest general fund expenditure for the county in 2025 is the sheriff’s office, which was at $18.2 million in Hutchinson’s first presentation. The various court, prosecutor and public defender expenses combined were at about $13.7 million.
Hutchinson previously projected that general fund revenue would increase by only $340,000 in 2025, while expenditures were expected to rise faster, by about $1.6 million.
She said the county in 2025 will have about $3.1 million for supplemental requests, capital and cost of living increases, as well as for partnerships.
Commissioners will vote on an official 2025 budget in January. The county had a year-end carryover balance of about $15 million just a few years ago, but significant annual operating deficits are slashing that cushion.
The new cuts came from multiple departments after Hutchinson sent a memo asking leaders to come up with ideas to cut 3% of their budget.
“We got some notes back from some saying, ‘Sure. Here’s our ideas,’ and we got some notes back from others saying, ‘Nope,’ ” Commissioner Melanie Flax Wilt said at Friday’s meeting. “So I think we’ll have some conversation about where we go from here now that we have a better idea of that picture.”
Three departments could not come back with cuts, Hutchinson said. These were the Common Pleas Court, the Board of Elections and the prosecutor’s office.
“Everybody else was able to cut; some of them not as much as 3% because it would affect the actual personnel, because some of the smaller departments like Treasurer and that are really just personnel,” Hutchinson said.
Commissioners will close some open purchase orders that are not tied to current contracts. This amounts to around a $2.5 million cut, Hutchinson said.
The county administrator cautioned that this cut is a one-time event to help in 2025, and if sales tax does not increase in 2026, Clark County may face a minimum of a 10% cut.
“We can be really open about it this year that we’ve got to be creative and mindful of how those dollars are shaped up going into the next year’s budget,” Flax Wilt said.
This summer’s sales tax holiday yielded $280,353, allowing the county to meet its target for sales tax revenue — $31.5 million, Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said at a previous meeting that Clark County may see a boost in sales tax revenue with the legalization of recreational marijuana, but is is too early to tell what that may look like.
There should also be an increase in property tax revenue in 2025 with new residents moving into upcoming housing developments like Melody Parks.
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