CLARION – There is some good news for Clarion County taxpayers in the 2021 budget.
“The current (budget) draft does not include a tax increase,” said Clarion County Commissioner Ed Heasley on Wednesday.
However, he said, the problem is the state’s 2021 fiscal budget is only approved through November.
“We don’t know what the (state) budget will look like from November through June,” he said. “We don’t know if they are going to cut us by 10 or 20%. That is a concern for me.”
Many of the programs offered through the county are funded by the state. If the state cuts funding for mandated programs, the county, which must adopt a budget by the end of the year, must pay the difference.
Clarion County Commissioner Ted Tharan said funds for the major renovations at the courthouse and the recently acquired Sorce building in Shippenville would come from the capital reserve fund, not the general fund.
The county has a long-established line item in the budget for records storage. The plan is to move the records from the old county jail into the former Sorce warehouse. Tharan said part of the records storage line item fund might be used to renovate that section of the warehouse property. He said the balance would remain in the general fund.
A major factor in the budget is the cost of health care for the county’s employees. Clarion County Commissioner Wayne Brosius said the increase for 2021 would be about 4%.
Clarion County Treasurer Karyn Montana said the ending balance for 2020 is expected to be about $5.9 million.
Tharan talked about a financial hurdle the county could face.
“In my opinion, and it’s just my opinion, the election will probably have a lot to do with how our budget looks,” he said. “(Joe Biden) already promised he’s going to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.”
Tharan said that would have “grave consequences” on the economy because the county would have to raise a lot of its employees up to $15 an hour, and any federal money received would have to pay those wages.
“(Biden) also stated that within 10 years, he is going to phase out fossil fuels,” Tharan said. “Every heating system that is in pretty much in every building that the county owns, not to say every resident of the county, has a gas furnace, a gas hot water tank, or an oil furnace. Some people still have coal furnaces, and those would all need to be replaced.
“Elections have consequences.”
The commissioners will vote to place the budget on display later this month. The public will be able to review the document for 30 days before it is adopted be the end of the year.