Trumbull County Commissioners held a special meeting Wednesday to try to get the general fund budget reduced further after receiving more than $81 million in requests from all the county departments.

While the county's projected budget for 2025 is $66,581,108.36, the commissioners are working to reduce the requested amounts, as departments asked for nearly $15 million more than the county has to work with.

The Wednesday special meeting focused primarily on getting a budget for the sheriff's department.

Commissioners had awarded the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office $17,331,062.51 in the budget, but they agreed that additional funds were needed, as the department's actual budget in 2024 totaled more than $18.5 million.

Mark Manning, Chief Financial Officer for Trumbull County Sheriff's Office, said that the Trumbull Sheriff's office spent more than $3 million in overtime last year year. He added that with the raises that the department received, the amount needed to pay all officers with no overtime is $20.5 million.

With overtime, which Manning said was needed to run the jail and department, the needed amount would be $23.5 million.

After discussion, commissioners agreed to allot $19.5 million to the sheriff's budget.

Commissioner Dennis Malloy said that giving the department additional funds it requested would "maintain the service we had, cover the raises, and give a good starting point to the new sheriff to craft his department and the future of the department without hindering him."

"We're not going forward, we're not going backward, we are holding our ground," Malloy added.

Manning said he could live with the $19.5 million but added that the $17.3 million would not have worked.

Trumbull County auditor Martha Yoder said, "A budget is an estimate, a budget is a best guess, we know that and we know that things change."

All budget items must be completed by April 1.