CANTON: Stark County government spending will not be cut as much as expected in 2012 because of the use of funds that have accumulated over the years.County Auditor Alan Harold said Tuesday that commissioners may spend $1.1 million in overpayments of real-estate and personal-property taxes that have gone unclaimed for more than five years.Another $1 million is expected to come from the title fund of Clerk of Courts Nancy Reinbold. The amount is expected to drop to $250,000 next year.The county will save $294,880 in its general fund because of a medical insurance fund “holiday,” a month when departments will not have to pay into the county’s self-insurance fund. Reserves are expected to be sufficient to cover claims with 11 monthly payments.“We’re fortunate to have this accumulation,” county Administrator Michael Hanke said.He said most departments faced cuts of 10 percent to 20 percent on top of spending reductions already forced in 2011.“Thanks to the voters, or we’d be sitting here looking at 40 percent cuts,’’ he said Tuesday at the commissioners’ budget work session.Voters approved a 0.5 percent sales tax Nov. 8. Collection is to begin April 1. The county should receive its first payment in July. The tax is dedicated to criminal and administrative justice and is projected to raise $11 million this year and twice that in subsequent years.Sheriff Timothy Swanson will see a 15 percent budget increase this year. His department was supposed to be restored to 2010 funding levels with passage of the sales tax, Commissioner Thomas Bernabei said.But the sheriff revealed in budget hearings that he would not be able to spend the extra $2.5 million that would have entailed. Attrition has meant it might take until June to reach the target number of deputies and other staffers.The Board of Elections will have a 21 percent increase over 2011 because this is a presidential election year, Bernabei said. However, the board still will spend less than it did in 2008, the last presidential election year.Commissioners today are scheduled to vote of appropriations of $48.9 million in the county’s general fund, a decrease of $52,560 from 2011 appropriations. The difference amounts to 1.07 percent. Bernabei noted the total is well below the $59.9 million budgeted in 2009.“Government has shrunk,” he said.Bernabei said the budget does not include money for raises.The spending of accumulated revenue is not expected to continue. Harold said a relatively large sum of overpaid taxes is available because the funds had not been reconciled “in some time.”Commissioner Janet Weir Creighton, a former county auditor, said the department oversees 600 funds “and sometimes things seem to accumulate.”Personal property tax overpayments are expected to dwindle because the tax on business inventory and equipment was last paid in 2009, Harold said.Since 2010, he said, real-
estate overpayments have been converted into credits on taxpayers’ accounts. The change is expected to simplify accounting.