×

Commissioners hear budget options

Two additional public sessions set for next week

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Maybe Blair County leaders should try a different tactic to build an annual budget, Duncansville-area resident John Kasun suggested Wednesday night during a public meeting at Hollidaysburg Area Junior High School.

Instead of asking department heads to prepare budget requests, Kasun suggested the county reverse the process and give department heads an allocation for the next fiscal year.

That’s the process the now-retired Kasun recalls from his working days as departmental supervisor.

“I had to figure out how to work with the budget they gave me,” he said.

The latest draft of Blair County’s 2020 budget shows expenses projected at $57.6 million, about

$3.8 million more than the projected revenue of $53.7 million.

On schedule to introduce a balanced spending plan at their

Nov. 12 meeting, commissioners hosted the first of three evening budget meetings on Wednesday to garner public input and ideas.

Options include increasing real estate taxes, making additional budget cuts and/or using reserve funds.

“We’ve made some significant progress already,” Commissioners Chairman Bruce Erb said, referencing the first draft of the 2020 budget, which showed expenses adding up to $8.5 million more than revenue. But that draft reflected full staffing levels and departmental requests, which commissioners reduced by more than half during eight budget meetings held to date.

“You were able to make those cuts because there was padding,” Kasun said.

But balancing the budget isn’t as easy as making more cuts because, as Erb explained, the county is mandated and responsible for providing specific services and covering the costs.

The community’s ongoing illegal drug use crisis continues to affect county operations, Erb said, including its court system, prison, adult parole and probation office, children and youth and human services departments.

For 2020, the draft budget shows Blair County spending $11 million to operate a prison.

“And that prison is going to cost us more down the road,” Commissioner Ted Beam Jr. said.

About a dozen people, including county employees, candidates and former candidates, attended the meeting.

Commissioners have two similar meetings scheduled, at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Tyrone Area Junior-Senior High School, and 6 p.m. Oct. 24 at Spring Cove Middle School in Roaring Spring.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today