MANSFIELD — The county’s budget is balanced.
Richland County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved nearly a $50 million balanced general fund budget for 2026 — a spending plan that reflects a 7.6-percent increase over the original 2025 budget.
About $146,000 in revenue above expenses was moved into contingency.
“I’m happy we passed a balanced budget,” Commissioner Tony Vero said Tuesday.
“Whenever you are looking at a budget with a 7.6-percent increase, I would certainly say it is a little concerning. That matches what our health insurance is going up,” Vero said.
Changes in health insurance budgeting have made significant differences to the county’s bottom line for the past two years. Vero said health insurance costs are estimated to increase by 7.7 percent in 2026.
“That is unbelievable,” he said.
The approved budget of $49,602,504.16 began as about $52 million in total requests between all county departments for 2026. Commissioners spent the past month working to trim around $3.9 million in requests (or about 8.1 percent) in order to balance next year’s budget.
Below is a PDF showing the approved 2026 general fund budget approved by Richland County commissioners on Tuesday.
Commissioners previously adopted a policy that requires them to balance the budget each year, i.e. not appropriating more than they and other county officials expect to generate in revenue.
By Nov. 25, commissioners were left with about $1.3 million that needed to be slashed.
However, an adjustment to the county’s assignment of inside millage became key to the three-member board’s efforts to balance the budget before the end of the year.
Inside millage adjustment helps balance 2026 budget
Richland County dedicates a portion of its allowed inside millage to the county’s debt payment for the Richland County Jail. The county is allowed two inside mills, of which eight-tenths of one mill were dedicated to the jail debt payment.
The Board on Tuesday approved reducing the inside millage dedicated to the jail debt payment to .18 mills (previously was 0.8 mills). Commissioners also voted to dedicate .21 mills of inside millage revenue to the county’s capital fund.
The remaining .41 mills of inside millage revenue will be dedicated to the general fund.
“We did not want to bring it all to revenue,” Vero said. “We want to continue to be fiscally responsible, so we have come up with what we feel will still pay off our jail debt with inside mills while also dedicating what would be revenue to capital funding.”
Bonds were issued in 2014 to pay for the jail. The county still owes about $16 million on the facility, Vero said last week. It is estimated to be paid off in 2040.
The county received better interest rates on those bonds and a lower monthly payment when it refinanced them about six years ago. Richland County originally decided against decreasing its payments.
Commissioners’ action Tuesday to adjust inside millage will increase the amount of yearly revenues going into the county’s general and capital funds — and creating enough additional revenues to balance the 2026 budget.
Adjustment to the jail debt payment was imminent either way, Vero said, due to the balance limit the county could keep.
“It would have been a much more difficult conversation to balance (without increased revenues),” Vero said at the end of November.
County sheriff’s department makes up 42 percent of budget
The county sheriff’s office operations, including road patrol, jail and 9-1-1 dispatch center, accounts for 42 percent of the general fund budget at $20,903,382.77.
During a budget meeting with commissioners in early November, RCSO had requested a budget of $22.3 million. Commissioners allocated nearly $10.8 million for the jail, about $8 million for patrol and $2.1 million for the dispatching center.
RCSO’s original budget request included $550,000 for a major project updating the jail’s kitchen, along with requests for $40,000 to replace four exterior security doors and $25,000 for a key control system.
Those three items were moved to the capital budget and approved by commissioners Tuesday. RCSO’s $160,000 request to replace a body scanner, which was also previously moved the capital, was not included in the approved capital projects.
One new cruiser (estimated to cost $74,000), opposed to the six requested, was also approved out of capital.
During the November budget meeting, RCSO Maj. Jim Sweat and Vero agreed the jail kitchen is a must-do.
“We are a 24/7 operation. The jail is a huge chunk of that, by far the largest of our three budgets and that is something the county is obligated to provide,” Sweat said in November.