Franklin County approves ’22 budget
Commissioners pass nearly $543 million
Franklin County commissioners on Tuesday approved nearly $543 million in general fund spending for 2022, an increase of about 1.8% over this year’s budget with no tax increases or fee increases.
The final budget differs only slightly from the preliminary spending plan released last month, and includes adjustments for additional contracts to use federal American Rescue Plan funding in 2022 and to account for higherthan-expected sales tax revenue.
“The main changes relate to reconciling expenditures between 2021 and 2022 based on updated projections for the current year, as well as incorporating adjustments related to contracts and other agreements that have been approved by the commissioners that have expenditures approved for next year,” said county Budget Director Zak Talarek.
The three commissioners, all Democrats, voted in favor of the budget during their final meeting of the year.
“I’m so grateful that we’re putting together a budget that has the reach, takes into the account the growth that central Ohio is experiencing, but moreover and puts us into a position to continue to meet the needs of our residents every day,” Commissioner Kevin
Boyce said.
Twenty-two of the 24 county agencies covered by the general fund were approved for increased spending in 2022.
More than half of the total budget goes to the county’s public safety and justice systems, including courts and the prosecutor, public defender and sheriff’s offices. The latter will see its budget increase in 2022 to nearly $178 million, from about $170 million projected for this year, due to the planned opening of the first phase of the new $360 million corrections center on Fisher Road.
County Administrator Kenneth Wilson previously said the budget includes about $11.7 million in spending directly related to the new jail, including increased staff and operational costs through the sheriff’s office and the county’s public facilities management office. The budget proposes a full-time equivalent work force for the sheriff’s office of 1,320 positions, up from 1,230 currently, and more than 203 in public facilities management, up from nearly 169 positions.
The county plans to add just over 200 full-time equivalent positions to its existing workforce of about 6,229.
The increased spending will be covered by higher-than-anticipated sales tax collections — estimated at about $340 million next year, said Talarek — and federal coronavirus relief funds. The county is receiving about $255 million through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Sales tax collections represent more than 60% of the county’s total general fund revenue.
Commissioners on Tuesday also approved 11 recommendations that aim to “embed diversity, equity and inclusion into the structure” of agencies that fall under the commissioners’ purview.
Developed by the county’s racial equity council, they include establishing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) standards and criteria for all board of commissioners agencies and community partners, engaging a diversity, equity and inclusion trauma specialist to embed with board of commissioners agencies, and review, revise and create trainings to build empathy, create safe spaces and generate buy-in and support.
The council was created last year when commissioners added racial equity to the county’s list of core principles and identified racism as a root cause of poverty, constricted economic mobility and health disparities.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do but we are making gains,” Boyce said before voting. “This is one of those things that while you’re doing it, you don’t necessarily see the impact you’re having. But five years from now, we’ll look back and we’ll have changed a system. We’ll have changed a philosophy.”
Commissioner Erica Crawley said part of what attracted her to the role of commissioner was the board’s commitment to achieving racial equity, pointing to the “Rise Together Blueprint,” a plan released in 2019 to address longstanding poverty.
Crawley said she was speaking as someone “coming from the (Ohio) legislature, where there has not been a priority on racism, racism as a public health crisis, even just acknowledging how we have codified in our laws and our regulations discrimination that has perpetuated centuries and has continued to hold people back economically, or just being able to thrive.”
Commissioner John O’grady added: “I’ve been here a long time. I expect to stay here for awhile, but I don’t expect to be here forever. I want to leave this place — this building, but also this county — in a better place when I’m gone.”
In other business Tuesday, commissioners:
h Approved giving $1.8 million to the Affordable Housing Trust to build affordable housing, bringing the contract’s total amount to just over $5 million.
h Approved $200,000 for an eviction and foreclosure prevention program run by Homes on the Hill.
h Voted to request the Ohio Department of Transportation investigate and determine whether to reduce the speed limits on two roads: from 50 mph to 45 mph along Central College Road from the Westerville city limit to Lee Road, and from 55 mph to 50 mph on Peter Hoover Road, from Walnut Street to the county line. mtrombly@dispatch.com @Monroetrombly