Budget Commission Begins Preparations for the School Budget Hearings
on February 19 & 20; No School Districts Are Below the 20 Mill Floor
Budget Commission Meeting – January 23, 2025
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Special Session on Thursday, January 23, 2025 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. The meeting was in person with a virtual attendance option via MS Teams.
Meeting Attendance: Prosecutor Jim Flaiz and Auditor Chuck Walder. Treasurer Chris Hitchcock was absent.
Staff Attendance: Chief Deputy Auditor Ron Leyde, Deputy Auditors Tammy Most and Kristen Sinatra, and Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan.
County Staff: N/A
Members of the Public: This LWV Geauga Observer (virtual).
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 am.
Minutes: N/A
The following Revenue Certifications were approved:
Reviewer Note: An explanation of the different types of funds in revenue certifications can be found here.
Observer Note: The Budget Commission requests that all entities provide beginning balances for all funds within 90 days of the start of the year. Most of the following amendments are simply
certifications of fund beginning balances for 2025.
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Berkshire Local Schools - Amendment #5. $25,219,527.21 in the general fund, $4,339,651.15 in special revenue funds, $1,613,391.28 in debt service funds, $2,551,804.33 in capital project funds, $882,819.29 in enterprise funds, $428,653.33 in internal service funds, and $191,173.66 in fiduciary funds for a total of $35,227,020.25.
Berkshire’s amendment reflected a special revenue funds increase of $26,339.74 and a capital project funds increase of $750,000.
This amendment certified Thompson Township Park’s beginning balance for 2025.
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Geauga Park District - Amendment #1 - $11,359,142.22 in the general fund and $1,137,873.71 in capital project funds for a total of $12,497,015.93.
This amendment certified Geauga Park District’s beginning balances for 2025.
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Geauga County Public Library - Amendment #1. $13,687,909.01 in the general fund, $207,524.53 in special revenue funds, $1,593,371.44 in debt service funds, and $13,833,874.29 in capital project funds for a total of $29,322,679.27.
This amendment certified Geauga County Public Library’s beginning balances for 2025. The Budget Commissioners briefly discussed if anyone knew how much the new Chardon Branch will cost to build, but no one had a definite amount.
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Troy Township - Amendment #1. $356,395.79 in the general fund and $1,831,588.37 in special revenue funds for a total of $2,187,984.16.
This amendment certified Troy’s beginning balances for 2025.
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South Russell Village - Amendment #1. $1,919,088.51 in the general fund, $7,349,840.68 in special revenue funds, $2,471,571.62 in capital project funds, and $230,992.84 in fiduciary funds for a total of $11,971,493.65.
This amendment certified South Russell Village’s beginning balances for 2025.
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Geauga County - Amendment #2. $69,339,402.59 in the general fund, $124,894,158.50 in special revenue funds, $5,172,649.58 in debt service funds, $1,143,702.06 in special assessment funds, $26,995,517.01 in capital project funds, $52,169,898.85 in enterprise funds, $1,739,600.37 in internal service funds, and $4,706,706.85 in fiduciary funds for a total of $286,161,635.81.
Geauga County’s amendment reflected a special revenue funds increase of $4,267,149 and a capital projects increase of $10,269,000.
A Geauga Public Health Appropriations Transfer (no details discussed) was acknowledged by the Budget Commission.
School Budget Submission Update:
Ms. Sinatra informed the Budget Commissioners that all of the County’s school districts have turned in their budgets in advance of the School Budget Hearings. She asked the Budget Commissioners if they still wanted to keep these hearings on two separate days, with Cardinal, Chardon, and Kenston on February 19 at 9:00 am and Berkshire and West Geauga on February 20 at 9:00 am. It was decided that the School Budget Hearings would remain as scheduled and would take place in the Auditor’s Appraisal Conference Room, 231 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio.
Mr. Walder stated that none of Geauga’s school districts were below the 20 mill floor this year. Observer Note: The 20 mill floor means that all Ohio School Districts are guaranteed at least 20 mills of funding by law. If a school district’s funding level drops below the 20 mill floor, a property tax increase (i.e., increased collection of existing levies) is instituted by the State for residents of those districts to get funding back up to the required level. In 2024, both Berkshire and West Geauga were below the 20 mill floor. As reported in the February 28, 2024 Budget Commission Observer Report, due to their 20 mill floor adjustments last year, Berkshire received an additional $1,538,576 in revenue from increased tax collection, and West Geauga received an additional $4,555,323 in revenue from increased tax collection. Since both West Geauga and Berkshire are now above the 20 mill floor, they will not be receiving additional revenue from a 20 mill floor adjustment.
Ms. Sinatra and Ms. Most said that all school budgets were submitted in hard copy, and they are working on getting the submissions scanned for the Budget Commissioners to review. Ms. Sinatra stated that Chardon Schools’ budget submission came with a page requesting a signature from Auditor’s Office staff acknowledging receipt. Mr. Flaiz expressed surprise at this: “They don’t trust us? They think we’re going to claim that we didn’t receive their budget?” Mr. Walder said “I fail to understand why schools don’t realize the optics to the taxpayer….” He expressed the opinion that the school districts take the position that “... we’re always the victim, you always beat on us, and then we need more money, all in the same breath.” He went on to say “the position always goes with the schools… ‘you’re stealing from the kids’… it’s always the same mantra and we’re (the Budget Commission) always the bad guys. I think the taxpayers, they’re bleeding (money)….” He concluded his remarks by saying that they are not required to sign off on receiving a school budget submission and expressed the opinion that this is “… not the way you (the school districts) should attempt to work with a group (the Budget Commission) that’s in place to be a check and balance.”
Public Comment:
This observer requested a copy of all documents from this meeting, which were provided via email on January 24, 2025. This observer asked if the Budget Commissioners knew whether the new Chardon library branch construction would also include a new administrative center for the library. The consensus was that this was rumored to be the case but nothing certain is known at this time.
This observer also asked for some information related to the school budget hearing process to clarify LWVG’s reporting in the January 13, 2025 Kenston Board of Education LWVG Observer Report. Mr. Walder confirmed that the schools have their budget hearings before the entire Budget Commission and no school districts have scheduled individual meetings with him regarding their budgets at this time. He stressed that he has an “open door policy” and has extended offers of willingness to meet, but “none of them have been accepted or followed up on the part of the schools.” Mr. Flaiz added that “any of us (Budget Commissioners) individually are happy to meet with anybody.” He also said “I’m frustrated because it seems like they would rather just show up at the meeting with their, you know, cheerleaders and attack us…. If you want to have a conversation with me, my door’s always open, come talk to me about it, and maybe we can have some productive conversation.” Mr. Walder said that the school budget hearings will not be livestreamed on the Auditor’s website but, as with all Budget Commission meetings, virtual attendance will be available to the public via Microsoft Teams, which requires a meeting invitation. Observer Note: Teams meeting invitations to Budget Commission meetings can be obtained by emailing a request to Ms. McMahan at pmcmahan@gcauditor.com.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 am.
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be a Regular Meeting on Monday, February 3, 2025 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio.
Observer: Sarah McGlone
Editor: Gail Roussey
Reviewer: Carol Benton
Submitted: 01/27/2025
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