VIENNA — Officials noted there were new challenges ahead with their fiscal emergency — including the possibility for it to extend longer than anticipated — after the passage of a bill that ended one of the programs intended to get them out of it.

Gov. Mike DeWine signed the state’s $11 billion transportation budget Monday, which funded infrastructure projects throughout the state and included a measure eliminating speed cameras in counties or townships, making a police department unable to send a driver a ticket for violations captured on traffic cameras.

Cities like Girard were not affected, as they operate under Home Rule, which grants municipalities the power to exercise powers of local self-government and adopt local regulations, as long as they don’t conflict with general state laws — per Article 18 of the Ohio Constitution.

Vienna’s cameras were put into action Aug. 5 through a contract with Blue Line Solutions.

Fiscal Officer Jason Miner explained Thursday that while residents “definitely” had mixed feelings about the township’s speed cameras, they were still an asset to Vienna’s long-term path to fiscal recovery.

“With those being gone, I think we have to reevaluate, and it’s my belief that with that additional revenue no longer being available, it’s going to extend our expected recovery by several years, probably,” Miner said. “Because we expect them to bring in $282,000 a year for the next four years. That’s over $1 million of extra money that we would have had to put towards debt repayments and increased fund balances.”

Miner said the township’s fire fund was still “incredibly negative,” noting it to be in the seven- or eight-digit areas. He said he had yet to factor in the money received from the cameras in March, but he’d know where they stood once he did.

“Forty percent was supposed to go to police, 40% to fire and then the 20% we were going to use wherever we saw fit at the time,” he said. “The traffic cameras were kind of essential to bailing the fire department out of that negative-fund balance there.”

Miner said the only way the township could realistically get out of the negative balance and stay within the five-year plan was by transferring “pretty significant” amounts of money from the township’s general funds. He wanted to be cautious about depleting the balance, however.

Miner said the township would also be losing its local government funds as of this August. Those were slated to be lost when Vienna started making money from the speed cameras. The township will not receive funds until it pays back the full amount collected by the cameras, he said.

With the township making approximately $170,000 from the cameras since Miner’s arrival in November, it’ll take “just under” three years to pay.

With earlier months being considered, however, it could take longer.

“When you factor in from October, November of last year, I think we’re really going to see the loss of the local government funds could take several years — probably close to four years in total — until we’ll pay back,” Miner said.

Miner said Vienna, Weathersfield and Liberty township officials are working with State Reps. Dave Thomas, R-Jefferson, and Nick Santucci, R-Niles, to get an amendment in the newly passed budget to restore local government funds to townships.

“If it’s passed, it would provide some sort of immediate relief to help us cope with the loss of funds,” he said.

As someone who helped review the township’s financial recovery plan as a member of the township’s fiscal commission, Trustee Mike Haddle said the loss of the cameras isn’t the “worst-case scenario.”

“The traffic cameras weren’t intended as a fix-all, solve-all. One thing people don’t understand about fiscal emergency is there’s an aspect beyond just living within your means, and stopping spending and everything like that,” Haddle said. “We have to pay back debt on top of that. You can live within your means, but if you’re not generating revenue above paying off past debt, you’re not getting out of debt.”

Haddle said they plan to wait until the next fiscal commission meeting to take another look at the recovery plan, as the next one is after the May 6 primary election.

Haddle said he’d have to redo the budget moving forward, as the capital improvement expenses threaded into the plan will go away.

Trustee Phil Pegg said the township was “good now,” explaining that if it didn’t have the traffic cameras, Vienna would have been bankrupt last February. Pegg said Vienna officials also gained valuable lessons from the cameras.

“I was speaking to one of the police officers, he just shot a car with the radar doing 90 (MPH) in a 55; we’re learning, we’ve learned where the really bad areas are with the cameras,” He said. “They did teach us, and because of that, even when the traffic cameras go away, we know which areas to concentrate on.”

Pegg said the township still has 90 days left with the cameras, which it plans to use until June 30.