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State of Fairfield County 2005
On March 8th, 2005 the Commissioners held their annual State of the
County Address at the Liberty Center on West Fair Avenue in Lancaster.
During this meeting the Commissioners advised the citizens of Fairfield
County of the situations they are currently facing. The theme was
“Proactive Leadership for Tough Times”.
“Doing more with less in
Ohio’s 3rd fastest growing county”
Here they discussed the reduced interest income and increased expenses.
Their overall solution is to downsize. But at who’s expense? They have
not cut their support staff as other County Agencies have been forced
to do. They will claim that they did not replace Pat Harris when he
became a Judge or Anita Hagar after her services were no longer needed,
which resulted in a 27% savings from their budget. While Pat Harris did
an excellent job while he was employed with them, he was ultimately
doing their job! Anita was not replaced because there was another
County Employee, Aundrea Cordle, doing the same job at Job & Family
Services! Kudos for not wasting our money!!!
“What have we done?”
Created a “Hot Zone Revenue Analysis Committee” (in 2001) to identify
future needs, analyze revenue enhancement, etc… This committee
suggested in April, 2004 to raise the conveyance fee, voter approved
tax increase with a property tax rollback, etc… These are the same
suggestions that have been made for years at their annual budget
retreat. Why have they failed to implement ANY of these alternatives
BEFORE it was too late? Commissioner Jon Myers pointed out in an
Editorial printed October 3rd, 2002 in the Lancaster-Eagle Gazette that
“the budget will not be in deficit until 2005 under the projections,
and a lot could change by then”. Why couldn’t he or Judy Shupe remember
these discussions when they denied a problem while running their
reelection campaigns in 2004? So….what have you done?
“Where do we go from here?”
Since 2001 there has been a total impact of $5.8 million to the General
Fund. What if the Commissioners had increased the conveyance fees to $4
in 1998 when it was first discussed during the budget retreat? An
estimated $7.2 million would have been generated. An Editorial printed
February 9th, 2005 in the Lancaster-Eagle Gazette after the failed
sales tax increase stated “Increase the conveyance fee to the state
maximum of $4. Raising it to $3 will generate an estimated $1.2
million. This sounds like a wise decision in such trying times.
“15-Point Plan of Action”
#1. Control employee costs: would this be necessary with an increase in
the conveyance fees?
#5. Sell obsolete assets: why have they been holding on to them?
#10. Communicate more effectively with the public: how about
communicate more honestly with the public?
“Proactive Leadership for
Tough Times”?
Sounds more like “Reactive Leadership for Tough Times”
Please call your
Commissioners at (740) 687-7190 and let them know you agree.
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