NEWS

Officials from seven counties air budget concerns

Tom Williams
Editor

MARION - County commissioners from seven central Ohio counties are concerned about the amount of financial aid they're getting from the state, particularly when it comes to addressing the opiate epidemic and resources for juvenile offenders.

That was the message at a legislative briefing Thursday with state Sen. Dave Burke, whose 26th District includes Crawford, Marion, Morrow, Sandusky, Seneca, Union and Wyandot counties.

State Sen. Dave Burke addresses county commissioners at a legislative briefing Thursday

"We all have the same concerns, we're all in the same boat. We need to work together" was Crawford County Commissioner Jenny Vermillion's assessment.  "All that 'Kumbaya' being said," the state needs to take care of the counties, Vermillion said, referring to Gov. John Kasich's budget as "rape and pillage."

The legislative briefing, organized by the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, was for the purpose of hearing from Burke and sharing concerns with him. Brad Cole, the CCAO director of research, said that this was one of a series of such briefings, each roughly centered around a state senate district.

Cole outlined the association's  legislative priorities for 2017-2018: Replacing revenue lost from the elimination of the Medicaid Managed Care Organization sales tax; address pressures on the counties because of the opiate epidemic; providing 50 percent reimbursement for indigent legal defense, and replacing voting machines.

The opiate epidemic puts a strain on the child protective services because of parental addiction, the association says, and the justice system is strained by added expense of more addicted individuals going to county jails. Commissioners agreed that this was a problem. "We're looking at a $10 million jail expansion," one commissioner said.

Morrow County Commissioner Thomas E. Whiston noted that there's been "a tremendous increase in cost" to counties because of the opiate issue.

Burke acknowledged the problem, but offered no promises. While Ohio opiate abuse numbers are "very high, they also are very true," he said.  "Our numbers are real, so as we try to fix the problem, we know what number we are working with." Other states don't have clear numbers, he said.

Marion County Family Court Judge Robert Fragale spoke about the need for counties to work with local schools as the first line of defense. "There's no trick to this," he said. "It's about keeping kids in school" The state needs to hear that money needs to come back to the county level, so that it can be spent appropriately, the judge said. "The whole reason of the juvenile system is so they won't end up in the adult system," he said. "We need to do whatever we need to do to keep them from graduating to the adult (court) system."

On the reimbursement for legal defense for those who cannot afford a lawyer, Fragale noted that there has been no increase in reimbursement since 2002. Having the state provide 50 percent of that money is a good target, he said.

Marion County Commissioner Andy Appelfeller said that taking juveniles out of the juvenile detention system and requiring that they be housed in a special setting, sometimes at a cost of $200-$300 per day  is an area that the state must address. Those special cases involve not just drugs, but such things as sex abuse and mental health issues.  "We foot the bill, but we're not given the money to pay the bill," he said.

Vermillion agreed and said costs are increasing: "It's snowballing."

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