Trumbull Commissioner says they're looking to department cuts to avoid sales tax increase
After Trumbull County Auditor Marth Yoder said a quarter-percent sales tax increase should be considered, Commissioner Denny Malloy told 21 News it's not on the table at this point, and is finding ways to cut fat out of the budget.
While he hopes a frugal approach will avoid passing the burden onto taxpayers, it's no secret higher costs are catching up to the county.
As Trumbull County works to finalize its budget, commissioners are weighing options on the table.
This comes after department heads requested millions more than the county can afford.
One floating option is the quarter-percent sales tax that the Auditor says shouldn't be dismissed, but Malloy said there are no plans to do so. Instead, he said employee overtime, raises and unnecessary hires may be first on the chopping block before burdening taxpayers.
"If we can find the happy median for all that, the last thing we want to do is ever get in a situation where we have to talk layoffs or cutting back in services," he said, "We don't want to move backward. We just have to be fiscally responsible."
Malloy said he can't rule out the possibility of tax or rate increases down the road and points out that while Trumbull County residents have been paying less compared to other counties this past decade, the county has been paying increasingly more for things like employee insurance among others.
"We pay increased fuel prices, we play increased price of parts and services that the county has to endure, and we're bringing in about the same amount of sales tax money. Eventually, you hit a point where there are no more services left to cut and that's what we're doing now, is asking everybody to tighten the boat a little bit, and let's try to save as much as we can," he added, "I would never, ever consider raising a fee, a rate, a tax or anything until I know for sure there is no fat left in the budget and there's no waste and fraud and abuse."
He said the county is avoiding employee layoffs at this point. In the mean time, department heads are tasked with gathering their bare-bone necessities to run their essential services.
