AUSTINTOWN — Voters have taken a hard stance on township finances recently, but were not overly harsh in Tuesday’s primary election.

They approved a request to renew Austintown’s 0.6-mill operating levy. The motion passed 56% to 44% (1,281 votes to 1,007), according to complete but unofficial results from the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

“We are very thankful to Austintown residents for renewing this general fund levy, which helps pay for essential services,” said Trustee Robert Santos.

The levy that began in 1976 generates about $166,000 per year for the general fund.

“It is nowhere near enough but we understand the hardships our residents are dealing with and we would not want to ask for more,” Santos said.

The general fund, by state mandate, supports the parks department, zoning department, administration and part of the roads department. But recently the township has had to borrow from the fund to support the police department.

In April, Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito said this year an advance — which will likely become a full transfer — of about $850,000 to $1 million is likely, and the department required about $670,000 in transfers from the general fund in 2024. He said in January that the general fund could be left with as little as $875,000 by the end of this year.

In November, voters defeated a 2.4-mill levy that would have generated $2.26 million solely for the police department.

Since then, the township has made regular cuts to the department’s budget, including approving a motion on Monday to retire two police dogs and end the program unless the canine officers can raise the roughly $20,000 it costs to maintain the dogs annually.

“When that levy failed, and even before that, we redlined that entire budget, and we made some cuts, some drastic cuts,” said Trustee Bruce Shepas.

Under retired police Chief Robert Gavalier, prior to the levy, the township cut about $200,000 from the police budget, though that was well short of its $1.3 million deficit. Since March, new Chief Valorie Delmont has cut another $75,000 or so, including the canine program.

But many of those cuts have been offset by other expenses.

“There’s also a lot of payouts and cashouts from a retirement, so initially there is no savings from those retirements,” Shepas said. “It’s a big expense for the township when somebody retires. But down the road a year or two there will be savings. However, do we have a year or two? No.”

Already this year, the township has had to pay $219,000 in severances to Gavalier, Capt. Tom Collins — who retired at the end of March — and a couple other retirees.

When Delmont was promoted, she took a $13,300 severance payment from the leave time she had accrued as a member of the police union’s collective bargaining agreement.

By cashing out the administrative time balance, she will not accrue that time in addition to the time that is due to salaried administrative township employees, like police chiefs.

D’Apolito said that in the long run, it’s a cost-saving measure.

SAVING AND FIGHTING

Officials say they have not taken their fiscal situation lightly and continue to work toward solutions for cutting costs and bringing in new money.

On Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the general fund levy passed, Santos and Shepas were in Columbus, testifying before the Ohio Senate’s Government Oversight and Reform Committee.

Among the many items that committee is considering is the revision to the state’s laws governing recreational marijuana, and specifically how the state’s excise tax on marijuana sales is distributed.

Santos spoke on behalf of the Mahoning County Township Association, of which he is president, and Shepas advocated specifically for Austintown.

When the law was passed as Issue 2 in November 2023, it stated that the state would collect a 10% tax on all marijuana sales at recreational dispensaries, and that 36% of that tax revenue would go to the dispensaries’ local communities.

In June, Austintown approved zoning to allow for one dispensary in the area of state Route 46 and Interstate 80, between Silica Road and Webb Road.

Terrell Washington, the owner of the Leaf Relief dispensary on Market Street in Youngstown, is poised to open that dispensary some time in the next year.

However, in House Bill 96 — the Ohio House’s version of the state budget — legislators cut that funding to 20% and only for the next five years, and only for communities with dispensaries that are operating by June 30 of this year.

Santos and Shepas say they want the original formula reinstated or at least an extension on the deadline for opening the dispensary.

“It’s money designated to the state that they promised us in the ballot language in November 2023,” Shepas said. “We’re going to continue to fight on behalf of Austintown and those monies to offset tax paying dollars.”

Santos has routinely stated that townships in Ohio receive 88% of their funding through levy dollars and that any additional money, like that from dispensaries, is vital to improving townships’ financial health.

He said that based on the numbers they have seen from other dispensaries across the state, Austintown’s dispensary could generate between $100,000 and $700,000 in revenue for the community per year.

“We anticipate it being at the higher end of that,” Santos said.

On Monday, Fiscal Officer Laurie Wolfe outlined the township’s first-quarter spending trends. She stated that at this point in the year, each department should be at 33% of its expected revenue and spending.

The general fund has received 39.5% of its expected annual revenue and the township has only spent 13% of that so far. Road has received roughly 43% and spent about 28%. The police department has received 42% and spent about 31%. Parks has received 36.5% and spent about 24.72%. The senior center has received 82% of its expected revenue and spent about 31%.

Only the fire department and communications have spent more than 33%. Fire has received 54% of its revenues and spent just under 36%, and communications (the dispatch center) has 50% of its revenue in and has spent 33.5%.

D’Apolito said the slight elevation in the fire department is because loan payments for fire trucks are regularly made in the first quarter.

As for communications, the township has renegotiated contracts with several communities for emergency response dispatching in an effort to reduce the disparity in what Austintown’s fire and police pay for that service.

Wolfe said that in 2024, Austintown’s departments paid more than $40 per call for dispatching, while most of the other two dozen communities the center serves paid between $11 and $24 per call. This year’s per-call average is about $29. By next year, the township aims to have all departments it serves paying closer to the estimated 2026 average of $31 per call.

The Board of Mahoning County Commissioners in March authorized a one-time payment of more than $335,000 to Austintown to cover the difference between what those communities originally negotiated for this year and the increase Austintown has negotiated with them, which will begin next year. The other communities will be able to save and adjust for next year’s increase this year, thanks to the county’s contribution.