Somerset County commissioners use reserve funds to avoid tax increase

There will be no county tax hike in 2013.

 

Rather than raising taxes or laying off workers to balance the 2013 county budget, the Somerset County commissioners decided to use $1.2 million of the county’s reserves in their spending plan. 

 

The end result is property owners’ taxes will remain the same at 10.88 mills, and 458 county employees will still have a job in 2013. The $2 million currently in the county reserve known as the rainy day fund could be depleted by 60 percent by the end of 2013 if the county needs to use all of the amount. 

 

An additional $1 million has been set aside, however, for a letter of credit with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for county projects. Those funds will be returned to the reserve in increments as the jobs are completed over the next year, Commissioner John Vatavuk said. This will place the actual amount available in the reserve fund at $3 million by the end of 2013.

 

The spending plan is the starting point for an ongoing budget process, the commissioners said at a media event Wednesday.

 

“Our challenge will be to minimize the impact on reserve funds currently budgeted while maintaining critical services to the residents of Somerset County,” the commissioners wrote in an overview of the 2013 spending plan, which is available online at dailyamerican.com.

 

Vatavuk and Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes signed off on the overview. Commissioner Joe Betta did not. On Wednesday he said he plans to abstain from adopting the proposed budget next month because he believes the spending plan comes from a structure that is not efficient and effective.

 

The other commissioners said they are comfortable with the budgetary system.

 

“The system provides an oversight process that allows me to make an informed decision,” Tokar-Ickes said.

 

The system, implemented in 2000, asks each department head to present a line-item budget for the next fiscal year. If necessary, the commissioners then meet with individual department heads to allow them to make their cases for the funds. The county fiscal department uses this information to develop a preliminary budget, which is presented to the commissioners for their input and consideration. That spending plan is made available for public view. The budget continues to be tweaked until its final adoption before the end of the year.