JEFFERSON – The Ashtabula County commissioners passed appropriations that will serve as their general-fund budget for the year during a meeting on Thursday, Feb. 5.
The commissioners passed a $35,797,276 budget for the year.
The budget process began in the final months of 2025, with the commissioners and County Administrator Janet Discher hearing from department heads about their budget requests for the year.
In December, the commissioners passed a temporary appropriations for the first quarter of 2026.
Now, the budget for the full year has been passed.
Discher thought the elected officials worked through the process well.
“I feel that their requests were reasonable. I think the County has done well with controlling costs the last few years, spending what’s necessary and not being frivolous in our spending,” Discher said.
She expressed hope that the County’s sales tax continues to grow.
Early in 2025, sales tax was down, but that changed as the year went on.
The County ended the year around 4 percent over the original estimate, Discher said.
“The first two months [of 2025] were down. January, this year is higher than last year,” she said.
Discher said that when people shop online, the County now receives the sales tax, which has been beneficial. This change happened right before COVID.
She also noted that the County has made some investments in its wages and benefits over the last several years to attract and retain people and remain competitive in the job market.
“So it costs us a little bit more money, but it’s been beneficial. We had a recent job posting for an administrative assistant position and we got over a hundred résumés. A few years ago, we’d be lucky to get a dozen for the same position,” Discher said.
While it’s been beneficial, Discher said they have to be cognizant of the increased costs.
“Half of our budget – that’s just wages. It’s actually more than 50 percent if I add in PERS and health insurance and Medicare,” Discher said. “It takes people to run government.”
Discher said there are no new hires in the budget.
She said 3-percent raises have been allocated for departments.
She again praised the elected officials for being reasonable in their requests.
“We’re trying to have a more conservative budget for the next few years as we undertake a very large capital project,” Discher said, referring to the Public Safety Center/jail project. “We’ve got to be able to balance that with the resources to fund these departments.”
Board of Commissioners President Casey Kozlowski said they’re coming into their 2026 budget after successfully balancing their 2025 budget.
“Our revenues did in fact exceed our expenditures, and that enables us to then use some of those carryover funds to get us through the appropriation process,” Kozlowski said.
Board of Commissioners Vice President Kathryn Whittington thanked Discher for her work on the budget.
The appropriations include:
• Commissioners’ office, $1,089,981
• County Obligations, $5,912,770
• Planning Commission, $148,103
• Purchasing, $535,000
• Building Department, $847,786
• Maintenance and Operations, $1,102,796
• Risk Management, $123,575
• Ashtabula Municipal Court, $152,486
• Ashtabula Criminal Prosecutor, $8,659
• Conneaut Municipal Court, $132,488
• Conneaut Criminal Prosecutor, $5,949
• Apiary Inspector, $9,927
• Tax Map – Engineer, $241,155
• Auditor’s Office, $478,168
• Treasurer’s Office, $546,541
• Prosecuting Attorney, $2,190,617
• County Recorder, $440,232
• Coroner, $590,452
• Sheriff’s Office, $10,614,486
• Common Pleas, $2,073,304
• Clerk of Courts, $750,499
• Juvenile Court/Probation, $1,641,838
• Probate Court, $401,077
• Eastern County Court, $426,077
• Western County Court, $438,158
• Data Board, $572,637
• Mandates, $972,574
• Public Defender, $1,042,289
• Board of Elections, $1,051,187
• Veterans Services, $1,256,465
Total: $35,797,276
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