In Trumbull County, property taxes and sales taxes fund the general fund, which pays for many essential services.

Trumbull County Auditor Adrian Biviano said, "The county is a service business at 48 million dollars the biggest is providing the justice system, the courts, prosecutor, coroner and sheriff's department. We typically get requests for 55 million dollars every year."

With the state government funds being slashed over the past decade and the sales tax flat in Trumbull County, Auditor Adrian Biviano has the responsibility of making sure the county stays within its budget.

Biviano explained, "There are only two ways to increase the county budget. You either bring in more revenue or you balance the budget out. The best case for departments is we keep giving the same budget as they had last year."

A "Grinch" stuffed toy has shown up at past budget hearings in Trumbull County. It could make an appearance again as a reminder for department heads that there's no extra revenue to spend. 

Biviano added, "It's possible that online sales taxes could be collected by companies and given back to counties, but we can't count on that. We can not spend money that we don't have. The sheriff's office was given 12 million this year and is requesting 14.6 million next year. The prosecutor's office is pretty good. Prosecutor Dennis Watkins's request is about $100,000 more than last year's request. The juvenile court is over a million dollars over too. We might be able to fund 48.5 million if we push it perhaps 49 million. Overall the goal is to keep services in the county at the same level, around 48.1 million dollars, so there is no need to increase property or sales taxes. It's going to be very lean here in 2020."

The general fund budget hearings will be held on December 9th and 10th at the Trumbull County meeting room.  Department heads have around 15 minutes to present their cases for their budget requests.