Luzerne County proposed budget in development, manager says

In less than three weeks, Luzerne County Manager Randy Robertson must submit a proposed 2023 budget to county council.

“We have some hard decisions to make,” Robertson said Wednesday, emphasizing the proposed budget is still under development.

He declined to forecast whether a real estate tax increase will be requested but said the county is facing insufficient staffing in multiple departments, inflation and public demands to repair and step up maintenance of roads and bridges.

“How do you do that on a 2020 budget?” Robertson said, referring to the last year county taxes were increased.

County taxes were 5.9754 mills from 2017 through 2019 and increased to 6.1696 mills in 2020, remaining at that level in 2021 and this year, records show.

A mill is $1 tax for every $1,000 in assessed value, meaning the owner of a property assessed at $100,000 must pay $616.96 in county real estate taxes annually. The last 3.25% increase in 2020 equated to $19 more annually on a $100,000 property.

During his first three months on the job, Robertson said concerns have been raised that many departments have insufficient resources to continue providing some services at a minimum level. He cited public defender’s office representation for the indigent, road and bridge maintenance and work by Children and Youth caseworkers and 911 telecommunicators as examples.

Robertson estimated the county has more than 150 vacancies.

Accepting that some vacancies won’t be filled, Robertson said he has started allowing some departments to fund position reorganization and compensation changes by eliminating vacant positions.

This restructuring is intended to maintain service delivery without requesting additional funding, he said.

For example, Children and Youth plans to eliminate a program specialist and three caseworker positions and create an agency deputy administrator position.

Other restructuring has been planned or implemented in the sheriff’s, budget/finance, law and information technology offices, the administration said.

Budget adoption

The budget introduction has been scheduled for the Oct. 11 council meeting, which precedes the Oct. 15 home rule charter submission deadline.

Council is free to make changes and faces a Dec. 15 budget adoption deadline.

The first public budget hearing will be at 5 p.m. Oct. 18, followed by a work session focused on budgets for these offices: controller, solicitor, budget/finance, judicial services and intergovernmental.

A budget work session at 5 p.m. on Nov. 1 will concentrate on the district attorney’s office, court branches and correctional services.

A second required public budget hearing will be held at 5 p.m. Nov. 15, followed by a work session about the human services, general government and public defender’s office budgets.

Work sessions on the administrative and operational services budgets will follow council’s 6 p.m. voting meeting on Nov. 22.