“This is very scary.”

That’s the way one county officeholder described the county’s budget crisis following a meeting Tuesday in county commission chambers at the Lawrence County Courthouse.

Commissioners called the meeting to determine what steps each officeholder had made or was making to abide by this year’s mandated 15 percent cut in their salaries’ line item.

According to information from the Lawrence County Auditor’s Office, 13 offices or line items will run out of money before the end of September: the prosecutor’s staff, common pleas court employees, domestic relations (part of common pleas court), probate court, clerk of courts, adult probation, juvenile court, sheriff’s employees (not including road deputies), jail staff, courthouse security, veteran’s employees, engineer’s employees and treasurer’s staff.

Additionally, five other salaries’ accounts are slated to run out of money between Oct. 1 and the end of the year: the secret service agent at the prosecutor’s office, the Dennis J. Boll Group and Shelter Home, board of elections, courthouse employees and road patrol deputies. Other offices, such as the auditor’s office and recorder’s office, were not on the list because their salaries’ accounts balance and they are not projected to run out of money.

“If there is no money in the fund we won’t write the check,” Auditor Ray T. Dutey said.

Dutey said meeting the next payroll March 20 will be “close” but he is particularly concerned about May payrolls, since there are three pay periods that month.

Contacted later in the day, he said the county should get its sales tax proceeds from the state on payday and that should help meet that March 20 payroll.

Dutey said some of the county’s recent decisions have been helpful. This year, all county households got a notice in the mail, advising them of the law requiring dog owners to purchase tags for their dogs.

In previous years, notices were sent only to homes of those who had purchased tags previously. But that left out people who had never purchased a tag and flew under the county’s radar in spite of enforcement efforts and people who have only recently purchased a dog.

Last year dog tags garnered $32,000; this year dog tag sales amounted to $51,000.

However, on the negative side, the county is getting less Local Government Fund dollars from the state than in previous years, meaning fewer state dollars to offset the county’s dwindling sales tax revenues, a principle source of money for the general fund from which salaries for most offices are paid.

Some had questions about just how many times the commission would — or could — ask officeholders to cut their budget.

“What happens when we’re tapped out?” Treasurer Stephen Dale Burcham said. “We spend very little in supplies and contracts and we do have to have a certain number of people to run everything efficiently. What happens when we get to the point where we can’t provide mandated services?

“If we continue to cut 15 percent, in two years I will not be able to pay my staff. We do use the delinquent tax fund (to supplement the salaries’ line item). But I’m at a point where I’m scraping by.”

Commissioner Les Boggs said Burcham’s question was difficult but that his office was in the same boat with most of the others. Boggs said however he did not anticipate asking for an additional 15 percent cut next year.

Bill Nenni, assistant to Coroner, Dr. Kurt Hofmann agreed with Burcham.

“What does happen? Several things are going to run out,” Nenni said.

And there was some concern about what would happen if the county’s downward spiral continued.

“The state could take us over,” Dutey replied.

“What is the process (of that)?” Board of Elections Chairperson Karen Matney Simmons asked.

Chief Deputy Auditor Chris Kline explained once a fiscal emergency is declared, the state officials realign Lawrence County’s budget for Lawrence County as those state officials see fit.

The issue of staffing cuts is one officeholders know well. Dutey said his staff of nine full-time and two part-timers is below the norm for a county this size with the workload his office handles.

He pointed out both Washington and Athens counties, with the same demographics as Lawrence, have more people employed in their auditor’s offices.

Sheriff Jeff Lawless said he is trying to offset general fund allotments by finding money elsewhere to meet the growing demands made to his office.

“We’re aggressively trying to generate money with grants,” he said.

He added that he is willing to sit down with commissioners and go over every line item in his budget so they can see where he spends his money.

“We’re at the bare minimum now,” Lawless said.

Commissioner Doug Malone acknowledged that criminal justice is one of the biggest blows to the budget each year.

“And you can’t control it,” Malone sympathized.

Peggy Reynolds, of the Lawrence Soil and Water Conservation District, explained that while her office is not mandated, many of the services it provides are, such as stormwater runoff and floodplain management.

And she pointed out that while providing these services, her office is often able to draw state and federal monies to pay for county services that the county could not get otherwise.

Clerk of Courts Michael Patterson pointed out that his staff size is in line with the recent state performance audit. While the audit stated that office was overstaffed by 1.5 people, this information was incorrect and has since been corrected.

“We’re not spending where we don’t need to spend, we make necessary cuts and I think we can live within our means,” Patterson said.

Board of elections member Craig Allen asked if the commissioners had any plans to take a 15 percent pay cut themselves given that they were asking other officeholders to cut their salaries’ line items and state officeholders are said to be taking pay cuts.

Commissioners replied they do not set their own salaries.

Boggs said he did not plan on taking a cut, explaining that he took a pay cut when he ran for commissioner (he was previously clerk of courts) and that the commissioners have cut their budget.

Board of elections chairperson Karen Matney Simmons pointed out that several years ago, her office did in fact cut one-third of its staff and that, at the time, such a move likely garnered significant savings.

In response to queries about what commissioners have done to cut their own expenses, Boggs pointed out the purchase of the old Mended Reeds for use by the county’s group home and making the group home a federal Title IV-E facility will likely save the county money and allow for more federal reimbursement for group home expenses.

Commissioner Jason Stephens pointed out the commission has worked to reduce worker’s compensation claims, encouraged attrition through its employee buyout offer last year and reworked some contracts to save money.

“Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Comp didn’t happen overnight,” Malone agreed. He estimated that all of the changes made by the commission over the past couple of years have saved more than $600,000.

“I think that’s pretty good effort and pretty good leadership,” Malone said.

Stephens pointed out that commissioners are also investigating whether the county can save money in information technology.

If some came with questions, others came with suggestions.

Nenni said the building at 514 Park Ave. that that houses the coroner’s office, is not used by the coroner’s office to any great degree and perhaps it could be closed. Nenni said the telephone for that office may be another expense that could be cut.

“It’s not been used in six months that I know of,” Nenni said. He admitted while these may not be big expenditures, it could help a little. “It’s not going to change $1.3 million in your budget…”

Allen said after the meeting he did not know what the board of elections will do about cutting its budget.

Last month when it met, the board discussed either going to a four-day work week for its four-person staff or laying off one person or asking its staff to take a pay cut.

“We’ll have to sit down and talk some more,” he said.

“This is very scary. Obviously the county is in very poor shape. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t have a crystal ball but it doesn’t look good.”