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WARREN -- Trumbull County Commissioners are looking to join a statewide consortium of other counties working with Huntington Bank that will enable it to use bank provided credit cards to pay for a variety of transactions.
The proposed system, if approved, will allow the county to pay vendors and other services through the credit card system and receive cash back rewards. The County Commissioners Association of Ohio, an association of county commissioners, has partnered with Huntington Bank to expand this program throughout the state.
Counties in the program get annual rebates based on the amount of financial transactions made with the Mastercard based credit cards throughout the state.
The higher amount of money spent through these credit card based financial transactions by consortium member counties, the higher the share each county will receive at the end of the year. There also will be a monthly cash rebate.
Although this is a program that a number of counties have agreed to participate in, Huntington Bank officials said each county designs its own credit card policies to fit its individual needs. Reports are made at the frequencies the individual counties require.
Mahoning County is a member agency of the consortium.
Commissioner Tony Bernard noted Mahoning County received between $120,000 and $140,000 in cashback rewards last year through the program.
"That's why we need to take a hard look at this, because that's additional revenue that we are not receiving. If we do receive $120,000 a year, we can use this money to build a new dog pound," he said.
Commissioner Denny Malloy noted that at an estimated annual revenue of between $120,000 and $140,000 a year through this program means it will take 30 years to raise enough for a multimillion dollar dog pound. Benard responded they do not know how much the proposed dog pound will cost the county.
In addition, he noted, they can take out a loan for the construction of the dog pound and use the money raised through this program as a revenue stream to pay for it.
"You wanted to borrow $3 million not knowing where the revenue will be coming from," he said. "This way we know where the money will be coming from."
Commissioner Rick Hernandez said he has no problem in delegating money for the building of the dog pound.
"Whatever money we can delegate, I'm in favor of it," he said.
Hernandez emphasized that the county will build a new dog pound.
"Maybe Huntington will be a part of it," he said.
Hernandez questioned what will happen if vendors want to charge extra to make transactions using credit cards.
Lisa Evans, a representative of Huntington Bank, noted the county may choose whether to negotiate with the vendor to see if they would reduce the extra charge or pay using a different method.
The county has a credit card program now. There are between 10 and 15 credit cards issued to various departments.