171 Montgomery County jobs cut in 2010

Task force suggests fundamental changes to Montgomery County finances

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By Lynn Hulsey, Staff Writer Updated 11:53 PM Tuesday, December 1, 2009

DAYTON — Montgomery County will shed about 171 jobs next year, including an anticipated 45 layoffs and about 100 employees who accept voluntary buyouts, according to Tim Nolan, director of the office of budget and management.

The rest will be lost through attrition and holding jobs vacant.

It will reduce the total number of employees to 4,640 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers.

The job losses in both general and nongeneral funds will help the county balance its $851.6 million budget in 2010 and is part of a resizing of operations to reflect dismal revenue projections.

Nongeneral fund departments — such as Job and Family Services — face state and federal funding cuts, but the biggest pressure is on the $141.3 million general fund budget, which is the county’s primary operating fund. Huge declines in sales tax revenue, investment income and property-related fees have battered the county year after year, and there is no indication those figures will turn around anytime soon, county Administrator Deborah Feldman said.

She proposes cutting the budget by 10.5 percent compared to this year.

She told commissioners Tuesday, Dec. 1, that she projects budgets will be balanced through 2014 using systemic changes to operations, including eliminating or reducing nonmandated services. The proposal does not use furloughs or one-time cuts to balance the budget, but it does adopt many ideas proposed in a task force’s five-year plan, which was unveiled Tuesday.

“We have a long-term problem and short-term solutions are not the answer,” Feldman said.

She proposes a wage freeze, a 7 percent across-the-board cut for judicial and law enforcement, 9 percent cuts for all other offices, demolishing the Family Courts Building, closing parks in the winter and cutting funding for the Animal Resource Center by 25 percent.

She also proposes billing jurisdictions for the full cost of nonmandated services such as the sheriff’s office contracts with townships and the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab.

The budget allocates $1 million for economic development, in addition to $3 million for the Economic Development/Government Equity Program.

Anticipated layoffs include 21 in county commission-controlled departments, 16 in the sheriff’s office, seven from Common Pleas court, and one in the clerk of courts office.

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