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MARTINS FERRY -- As the former East Ohio Regional Hospital building remains empty, the city of Martins Ferry is left to deal with the impact of its closure on city coffers.
The village of Bellaire also is dealing with April closure of Belmont Community Hospital and the impact on its budget.
Martins Ferry Auditor Rita Randall said that EORH, which closed in October, generally brought in $162,000 annually to the city's General Fund in the form of income tax collections. The city has a 1 percent income tax and an estimated population of 6,596, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
"They have not submitted what they withheld from people since March. How they can get away with that, I don't know," Randall said.
Randall said this year, the city is getting some help in the form of additional oil and gas lease revenues from city-owed properties' mineral rights.
"The city, we have some unexpected oil and gas money coming in, so we're faring better than we would have," she said.
Nonetheless, we are going to finish with half the balance we had hoped," she said.
Randall anticipates the city will end the fiscal year $150,000 in the black. However, she generally likes to have at least $250,000 in cash carryover to help pay bills in the beginning of the new fiscal year, until other tax collections come in.
"It is a chunk of money. It will hurt the budget, yes. There's going to be a lot of decisions that have to made next year because obviously we can't operate the way have this last year. It's not my decision, it's management's," Randall said.
Randall noted that when working on the budget, she typically estimates revenues to be low and expenses high so the city can stay within its budget.
Village of Bellaire Auditor Tom Sable said Belmont Community Hospital on average contributed about $50,000 to 60,000 annually in income taxes to the village. Like Martins Ferry, Bellaire has a 1 percent income tax. The village's estimated population is 4,064.
Sable added, however, there has been an increase in wage taxes collected from other businesses that has helped to somewhat offset this loss.
"Our business withholdings in town as of November are up $48,000 this year to date versus 2018," he said.
Sable believes the increase can be attributed to not only some other businesses expanding, but also to existing workers making more money.
"It's encouraging, but the hospital still has impacted us," he said. "On the residential side, the folks who live here and pay a wage tax, it is up $130,000 compared to last year at $117,000."
Sable noted Acuity Specialty Hospital still is operating inside the former Belmont Community Hospital building, which is helpful.
"The hospital (closing) hurt us overall, but we're running ahead. … It's not a big shock. There is strength in numbers. If we can fill the storefronts there is strength in numbers, and we will replace what we loss. We can't control private enterprise; we can't force their hand to stay," Sable said, referring to the hospital closure.