HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County’s financial picture continues to improve, based on a newly released 2021 audit presented Thursday to commissioners.

The county’s end-of-year fund balance of $15.78 million — with $14.22 million available for future use — was among the improvements auditor David Scott of Young, Oakes, Brown & Co. mentioned as he offered a synopsis of the annual report.

Scott also referenced a “huge drop” in the county’s pension liability — from over $90 million to $63.76 million — based on a new calculation that accounted for increases in general fund contributions to the pension plan and the adoption of a funding formula to determine the size of contributions.

The third noted improvement, Scott said, is 2021’s statement showing revenue exceeding expenses by $409,801.

“It’s better than a deficit like in the past,” Scott said.

Commissioners Chairman Bruce Erb said the county’s financial picture has improved significantly in the last five years.

Erb said he thought 2021 was the fourth consecutive year the county had an operating surplus. In prior years, it wasn’t unusual for expenditures to exceed revenue within a year and for the county to make up the difference by relying on available reserve funds that dwindled over time.

Erb recalled that the county, at the beginning of 2017 when he took office, was financially strapped with a fund balance of $1 million to $2 million.

As for the change in pension fund’s liability, Erb welcomed the improvement and referenced additional efforts to address the county’s underfunded plan.

He recalled the years when the county directed proceeds from the sale of Valley View Home to support the pension plan, without any additional support from the county’s general fund. That practice has changed, he said, along with adoption of a funding plan to determine the size of the county’s general fund contributions, in an effort to get the plan back to fully funded status.

As for the audit’s influence on building the county’s 2023 budget, Erb said: “It puts us in a better position, but we’re at a time of historically high inflation, which makes our expenses hard to predict and control.”

County Administrator Nicole Hemminger said commissioners have individually started meeting with their department heads on efforts to start working on the 2023 budget. Public budget review meetings will begin in early November, Hemminger said.

As for the audit’s influence on 2023 real estate taxes levies, Erb declined to offer a prediction.

“It’s way, way too early to predict what it means for taxes,” he said.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.