Section 5101.161. Public assistance fund

Prior to the sixteenth day of May annually, the department of job and family services shall certify to the board of county commissioners of each county the amount estimated by the department to be needed in the following state fiscal year to meet the county share, as determined under division (B) of section 5101.16 of the Revised Code, of public assistance expenditures. Each January, the board shall appropriate the amount certified by the department and an additional five per cent of that amount. Each June, the board may reappropriate, for any purpose the board determines to be appropriate, the amount appropriated in January that exceeds the total of the amount certified by the department for the last six months of the current state fiscal year and the first six months of the following state fiscal year.

Before the fifteenth day of each payment period the department establishes by rule, the department shall pay a county the estimated state and federal share of the county's public assistance expenditures for that payment period increased or decreased by the amount the department underpaid or overpaid the county for the most recent payment period that the department knows an underpayment or overpayment was made.

If the department establishes a maximum amount that it will reimburse a county for public assistance expenditures and a county spends more for such an expenditure than is reimbursable, the department shall not pay the county a state or, except as provided in section 5101.162 of the Revised Code, a federal share for the amount of the expenditure that exceeds the maximum allowable reimbursement amount. County expenditures that exceed the maximum allowable reimbursement amount shall not be credited to a county's share of public assistance expenditures under section 5101.16 of the Revised Code. The department also shall not pay a county a state or, except as provided in section 5101.162 of the Revised Code, a federal share for an administrative expenditure that is not allowed by the department.

A county shall deposit all funds appropriated by a board of county commissioners and received from the department under this section in a special fund in the county treasury known as the public assistance fund. A county shall make payments for public assistance expenditures from the public assistance fund.

The attorney general shall bring mandamus proceedings in the Franklin county court of appeals against any board of county commissioners that fails to make appropriations or deposits into the public assistance fund required by this section.

The director of job and family services shall adopt internal management rules in accordance with section 111.15 of the Revised Code to do all of the following:

(A) Establish the method by which the department is to make payments to counties under this section;

(B) Establish procedures for payment by counties of the county share of public assistance expenditures;

(C) Establish payment periods for paying a county its estimated state and federal share of public assistance expenditures;

(D) Allow county departments of job and family services to use the public assistance fund for other purposes and programs similar to the purposes and programs specified in this section.

The director may adopt internal management rules in accordance with section 111.15 of the Revised Code to establish a maximum amount that it will reimburse a county for public assistance expenditures.

Effective Date: 07-01-2000