Written by Remember that quote from Jerry McGuire? You know, “Show me the money!!!”
The same could be said when it comes to the Marion County Commissioners.
Show me the money!!!
As you can see from the attached chart that gives a breakdown of the county’s General Fund revenues between 2009 and 2024–which comes directly from the county’s financial audits filed with the state of Ohio—Marion County ended 2024 with a carryover balance of $20.566 million.
However, according to 2026 projections, at the end of this year, the county will only be left with somewhere between $1.5 and $2.5 million dollars after it pays out a General Fund budget deficit of $4.5 million dollars.
2025’s financial audit probably won’t be published by the Auditor of State until this fall, so we’ll have to wait to see what the hell went wrong in 2025.
That being said, we do know that the 2026 budget was approved with projected revenues at $29.2 million and projected expenditures at $33.7 million for a projected budget deficit of $4.5 million.
We also know that, despite a small decline in the county’s population over the years, staffing levels at the county have increased somewhat substantially.
The county ended 2024 with 480 employees, up from 409.5 in 2021 (the half is a part time employee). How many more did it hire in 2025?
In addition, the COVID era American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that flooded the county with cash is no longer available.
The county received $38,269 in ARPA funds in 2021, $4.956,120 in 2022, $4,734,575 in 2023, and $2,266,292 in 2024. Most of those funds went to fund the county’s judicial system.
But all that aside, I ask again, where the hell did all that carryover money go?
Show me the money!!!