By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEBANON - Bracing for large state funding cutbacks, Warren County commissioners took the first step Tuesday toward ranking the county's social service programs.

Commissioners will use the rankings to determine which programs get funded and which get cut.

"We're not flush the way we used to be," Commissioner Larry Crisenbery told a group of social services department heads Tuesday. "These are tough times."

At Tuesday's work session, the department heads agreed to provide commissioners their annual reports in one month and to present a comprehensive report on county social services on May 1.

That report will include a listing of county social service programs mandated by the state and a ranking in order of importance of other programs.

"At a time when our state and federal governments are battling budget crunches," Commissioner Pat South said, "there's no better time to identify what services are mandated and which ones we would like to provide if funding is available."

Commissioners decided to assess their social service programs after Commissioner Mike Kilburn recently criticized some services as "crap."

An emergency prevented Kilburn from attending Tuesday's work session, South said.

Counties throughout Ohio are expecting significant cuts in state funding for social services when the two-year state budget is finalized later this year.

"We're all concerned about losing money from the state," said Laura Sutherland, director of Warren County's juvenile court services.

John Lazarus, superintendent of the Warren County Educational Service Center, said the county social service department's heads need to provide commissioners with more complete and timely information about their various programs and grants.

"I think a better line of communication would help all of us," he said.

On another issue connected to money, commissioners decided Tuesday to postpone voting on a proposed increase in the tax to sell real estate.

Commissioners could have voted Tuesday on a measure to raise the property transfer fee from 3 mills to 4 mills, which would generate about $1 million a year for the county.

But after listening to opponents of the tax increase at Tuesday's public hearing, Crisenbery and South said they don't want to vote on it until they know what the state's budget will be for the coming fiscal year.

"There's no reason to act hastily," South said. "We have to get a better handle on what the state is or isn't going to do, and that might not be until near the end of June."

The tax increase would mean that a person selling a $200,000 home would pay a transfer fee of $800 instead of the current $600.

The next public hearing on the issue will be at 5 p.m. April 17, in the commissioners' meeting room at the county's administration building.

Realtors argued against the tax increase Tuesday.

Eugene Snavley, executive vice president of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors, said he was glad commissioners at least postponed a vote on the tax hike to give it more thought.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com