Politics & Government

Summit State of the County

In 2011, the county will offer micro loans to businesses looking to add jobs and conduct a market study to match training to available jobs.

Compared to the rest of the world, the state of Summit County is pretty good, and getting better. That's the message County Executive Russ Pry delivered in his fourth annual address.

During bad economic times "our country became a team," Pry said. "We built bridges of trust, created partnerships of responsibilities and came together in collaboration of future opportunities."

At the beginning of Pry's 40-minute speech, he asked for a moment of silence for the Teodosio family. ,  daughter of Summit County judges Thomas and Linda Tucci Teodosio, died Sunday as a result of a skiing accident.

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Pry also highlighted a fiscal austerity program that resulted in a 2011 budget that was $53 million less than spending in 2008, a county sales-tax rate that is the third lowest in the state and a $1.1 million general fund surplus in 2010.

The improvements are contrasted against sales-tax revenue that is $2.4 million less than in 2008 and investment profits that are less than half the 2007 amount. "It will still be many years before we return to these levels," he said.

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Pry also highlighted the following successes:

Opening a new $2.9 million animal control center.

The mergers of the Akron and Summit County, and Cuyahoga Falls and Silver Lake building departments.

The merger of the Akron, Barberton Summit County health departments into the Summit County Health District.

Two new initiatives of the Summit Jobs Partnership were previewed in the speech. Pry said the Jobs Partnership, a public-private consortium, will conduct focus groups and a market analysis with the University of Akron's Taylor Institute to identify the area's core industries and create training programs for future employees. "We can no longer train and educate just for the sake of training and educating," Pry said. The group will also spend $150,000 in community development block grants to provide micro and small loans to businesses that provide job creation.

During questions from the audience, Pry said he is against a bill in the Ohio Senate that would reduce collective-bargaining rights for public employees and is open to discussing consolidation of public agencies and services, as long as they reduce cost and maintain services. He also said, if asked, he would advise caution in "wholesale cuts" to urban areas in the coming state budget, because urban areas provide the most jobs. "If cuts are made, there should be incentives for collaboration, instead of cuts across the board."

Read the county executive's full speech in the attached pdf.


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