Tax Budget Formal Hearing- Board of DD

                  The Ashtabula County Budget Commission met on Monday, November 16th at 9am to hold a formal hearing on the Tax Revenue Budget of the Ashtabula County Board of Developmental Disabilities. This formal hearing was to guage the necessity of the Board of DD's estimated 2021 Property Tax Levy revenue of $7,042,000. 

                  Due to the projected carry over balance for the start of 2021 of nearly $10,000,000; County Auditor David Thomas motioned to decrease the 2021 Tax Revenue for DD by the amount of their .5 Mill Levy or $485,411 due to this amount of tax revenue not being projected to be used until 2029. The motion did not pass due to lack of a second. The Budget Commission implored the Board of DD to engage in more services and use of these Tax Dollars in 2021 and will be reviewing their budget once again next year. 

Read Auditor David Thomas' Opening Statement Here.

                  The Budget Commission is a statatory entity made up of the County Auditor, County Treasurer, and County Prosecutor. The main duty of the Budget Commission is to review Tax Budgets every year to ensure there is a required need of your tax dollars. 

                   The role of the Budget Commission is very simple, to ensure the necessity for Tax Levy dollars received by local governments. Each year, we review Tax Budgets of all government entities in Ashtabula County who receive property tax dollars. We do this to ensure the need for your tax dollars in between the public’s opportunity to vote on levies.

                    Every year voters have the ability to vote on levies to provide additional, renewing, or lowering amounts of funds to our government entities. In between these elections, it is the responsibility of the Budget Commission to ask the difficult questions and represent the interest of the taxpayer for the need of tax dollars by these entities. The Budget Commission has the authority to reduce collection of Tax Levy dollars to fit the required need of the government entity for the following year.

                     The Budget Commission also determines Local Government Funding models, the General Fund appropriations for the County, and other duties.