MANSFIELD — A deep dive into all of Richland County’s revenue sources may ease the pain of achieving a balanced budget for 2026.
When the county refunded its jail bonds — which were issued in 2014 to pay for the county jail — about six years ago, it received better interest rates on those bonds and a lower monthly payment.
But the county decided against decreasing its payments, Commissioner Tony Vero said during Tuesday’s meeting.
“We knew sooner or later we were going to have to adjust our payments. Otherwise, there would be a lot left over at the end of the bonds,” Vero said.
Richland County still owes about $16 million in bond debt, he said. It is estimated to be paid off in 2040.
Richland County Auditor Pat Dropsey has supplied the Board with different options of how it could reduce the amount of inside millage that is dedicated to the jail debt payment, the commissioner said. The county is allowed two inside mills, of which eight-tenths of one mill are currently dedicated to the jail debt payment.
Vero said reducing the amount of inside millage dedicated to the jail debt payment would in turn increase the amount of yearly revenues going into the county’s general and capital funds.
But how does it relate to balancing next year’s budget?
When the Board sat down for its first 2026 budget work session near the beginning of November, Vero estimated about $3.9 million in requests from county departments would need to be cut to pass a balanced budget.
About $52 million in total was requested between all county departments for 2026.
After reviewing and adjusting three of the largest budgets from county departments, the Board was left with about $1.86 million more to cut to reach a balanced budget. That figure decreased to about $1.67 million after the Board’s second work session and around $1.3 million by the end of Tuesday’s meeting.
The Board plans to have Dropsey run numbers for a few of the adjustments to the inside millage amount commissioners are considering. Once completed, commissioners will have a better idea of the additional revenues an adjustment would create.
While no exact figures were promised Tuesday, Vero said it’s expected to generate enough additional revenues to balance the 2026 budget. It is also likely the Board will dedicate a certain percentage to go into the county’s capital fund annually.
Vero said the Board still needs to review budget requests moved to capital throughout the past few work sessions and that some cuts are still a possibility. But the opportunity to increase yearly revenues is a large help in this year’s budget process.
“It would have been a much more difficult conversation to balance (without increased revenues),” he said.
