(Columbus, Ohio) Today, Franklin County Commissioners named nine members to the County’s newly-created Budget & Economic Advisory Panel who will analyze the County’s fiscal condition to determine if an imbalance exists between annual operating revenues and expenditures and to present the Board of Commissioners with recommendations to address any fiscal gap.
Following the adoption of an austere, yet-balanced 2013 Budget last December, Commissioners announced they would convene a panel of community representatives with business, legal, financial, and policy-making experience to review the County’s long-term fiscal condition and structural balance.
The nine-member Budget & Economic Advisory Panel is comprised of the following individuals:
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<LI>Ty Marsh, Principal, Ty Marsh & Associates (Chair)</LI>
<LI>Pierre Bigby, Owner & President, Bigby Financial Planning, LLC </LI>
<LI>Bill LaFayette, Owner, Regionomics</LI>
<LI>Karen Morrison, President, OhioHealth Foundation</LI>
<LI>Frederick L. Ransier, III, Partner, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP</LI>
<LI>Martyn Redgrave, Senior Advisor, Limited Brands</LI>
<LI>Timothy Robinson, Executive Vice President & CFO/CAO, Nationwide Children’s Hospital</LI>
<LI>William Shkurti, Adjunct Professor, The John Glenn School of Public Affairs</LI>
<LI>Bea Wolper, President, Emens & Wolper Law Firm LPA</LI>
</UL>
Franklin County’s revenue has been negatively impacted by the national recession, stagnant property tax revenue, declining investment earnings and sharply-reduced state support.
This year alone Franklin County will realize $41 million in budget reductions as a result of state of Ohio policy changes, including reduced support for family safety-net programs and a 50-percent decrease in state support through the Local Government Fund (LGF).
Franklin County is routinely acknowledged for being well run, leading the state in economic growth and maintaining the only double, Triple-A bond rating of any Ohio county.
The Panel is expected to convene its first meeting in February to evaluate options which would maintain Franklin County’s high quality of life. The Panel will meet periodically over the next 6 months with work concluding by August 1, 2013.