Commissioners OK slightly smaller budget for 2018

YOUR MONEY /

NEWARK — Licking County commissioners have signed off on a $65.4 million interim budget for 2018 that includes room for merit raises for employees and more than $4 million for bridge repairs and other capital projects.

The total is less than the $66.6 million in general revenue spending, including $7.8 million in capital projects, approved by the commissioners last year for the 2017 budget that included funding to complete $8.5 million in courthouse renovations and other projects.

“From an operational standpoint, it’s almost the same as last year,” Commissioner Tim Bubb said of the new spending plan. “The only change is actually a downsized budget this year, because last year, as you remember, we had some expensive capital projects.”

Capital improvements planned for 2018 include about $1.5 million for the relocation and combining of Licking County’s 911 center and Emergency Management Agency. Dispatchers have operated from a state-owned facility deemed unstable and unsafe. In 2018, the 911 center and EMA will combine in an 8,500-square-foot space at the Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority.

Another $1 million is being earmarked for repairs at the county jail, $1 million for final upgrades to the county child support and combined records center, and $2 million for bridge repairs, Bubb said.

The budget, approved this month, also includes spending for 2 percent merit raises for employees, with individual increases at department heads’ discretion, Bubb said.

The county likely will have to spend about $2.4 million to help Licking County Job and Family Services continue to cover the costs of services for abused and neglected children, said Commissioner Duane Flowers.

That’s on top of the $4 million in additional funding expected to be generated by a levy approved by voters to help cover children services, with more youngsters requiring foster or other care because of increasing numbers of adults addicted to drugs.

“There’s still going to be pressure on the general fund to help get (children’s services) through,” Bubb said. “If the levy hadn’t passed … you have to question really how much could we have done or would we have been able to do without that support.”