Franklin County proposes spending cuts with $492 million general fund budget for 2021
Franklin County officials are proposing a 2021 budget that calls for no tax or fee increases while cutting some expenses and maintaining support for human service organizations.
County Administrator Kenneth Wilson will recommend a general fund budget of about $492 million in the spending plan he introduces to the county commissioners at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
Wilson and Zak Talarek, director of the county Office of Management and Budget, said proposed spending in the 2021 general fund budget is down about 4% from this year, while expected revenues are down nearly 10%.
"Everything has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic," Wilson said.
Some of the spending highlights in the recommended budget:
Raises: The 2021 budget will contain some provision for some merit raises for Board of Commissioners employees, but not an across-the-board increase. The amounts will be determined by circumstances over the next six months.
Projects: Continue the Building Futures project through a partnership with Central Ohio Building Trades. The 12-week training is designed to help low-income residents pursue careers in skilled construction trades such as electrical work, iron work, carpentry, painting, plumbing and others. The Affordable Housing Initiative, first adopted in 2019 to limit evictions and prevent homelessness, will also be continued with a total of $15.6 million allocated. The project is designed to help create more than 200 affordable housing units.
Infrastructure: The budget supports the expansion of a Rapid Resource Center at the new Franklin County Corrections Facility. Operations have already begun at the Jackson Pike facility.
Programs: The county's two-year pilot program, the Family Stabilization Unit, will receive $1.1 million to take a “360 degree approach” to deal with the social determinants of health and racial equity, Wilson said.
Sales tax revenue — the biggest single source of county revenue — is projected to have fallen about 5% in 2020. Under the recommended budget, only 10 of 24 county agencies financed through the general fund would see increases over their projected 2020 spending. A total of 16 agencies saw increases in last year's projections.
The county’s fiscal strength was challenged by the various revenue losses accrued this year due to the ongoing pandemic, which forced local businesses to exercise restrictions and shut down temporarily. Some businesses never recovered.
A big area of concern is travel and tourism, which Wilson said is an $8 billion a year industry for the county. Without hosting large group conferences at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, there a sizable dent in the local economy.
“...We’ll be back once people feel safe and there’s a vaccine in place,” Wilson said.
Wilson said he doesn’t expect to see any economic normalization until at least the midpoint of 2021.
But Wilson said the county was prepared to wrestle with this year's fiscal challenges.
County officials asked agencies to reduce their current 2020 baseline budgets by 2.5%, which saved nearly $11 million. These cuts allowed the county to reduce the reliance on cash reserves and to preserve support for health and human service agencies, Wilson said.
Wilson said federal CARES Act funding also effectively took care of increased expenditures that resulted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We feel confident that we made the right call," he said of the reduced spending request by county agencies.
With those reductions, there will be a cash balance reduction at the end of 2020 of about $31 million, but the county's rainy day fund would remain at $62.5 million heading into the new year.
Among other adjustments, Wilson said the county also made reductions to capital expenditures and restricted agencies from placing a new initiative in the budget system without it being approved by Talarek.
Despite the challenges surrounding the pandemic, Wilson said the county is in a good position to have some sustainability next year, which he credits to the county's long-term, five-year forecast approach to yearly budgets and its diverse economic base.
"We’re not just manufacturing, we’re not just health care, we’re not just financing, insurance. We’re all those things,” Wilson said.
Tyler Lowry, county public affairs director, agreed. “We’re also fortunate to have a growing economy in Franklin County as well. We have resources that a lot of other counties just don’t have.”
Wilson said the proposed budget ensures the county is fiscally responsible while remaining resident-centered during the economic rebuild in 2021.
“While we’re fighting COVID-19 every day, we've got to continue to build a foundation for economic recovery," he said.
Similar to the coronavirus response grants, Wilson said the budget will align with the county's policy priorities that are aimed at promoting social and economic justice and providing opportunities for underserved residents in local neighborhoods.
The county's total budget expenditures in 2021 are nearly $1.8 billion and include not only the general fund but justice and public safety, facilities, economic development, capital projects and other spending. That is nearly $5 million more than the county's 2020 budget expenditure projections. The majority of 2021 total county spending, more than 42%, goes toward social and human services.
Wilson said county agencies need to be more collaborative with one another to make the most of available funds toward addressing those social and human service needs.
The county will hold its first hearing on the 2021 recommended budget overview at 1 p.m. Tuesday. The public can access the proposed budget on the county website Tuesday morning.
Two days of public hearings, with presentations from individual county agencies, are set to begin at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Nov. 18 and at 9 a.m. on Dec. 10. Adjustments to the initial spending recommendations likely will be made prior to the commissioners’ final approval of the total 2021 budget, scheduled for Dec. 15.