HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County’s budget requests for 2025 add up to $55.08 million, leaving commissioners to figure out how to whittle down a $9 million deficit in light of revenue projections at $46.08 million.

Commissioners began Monday to take a closer look and make adjustments to the expenses requested by departments, offices and fellow elected officials.

Their efforts, scheduled to resume Wednesday, are expected to continue through mid-to-late November, when the county generally introduces a tentative budget and sets real estate tax levies for 2025.

As Monday afternoon’s budget session concluded, Commissioner Amy Webster acknowledged that “starting $9 million in the hole” is scary.

The deficit — as shown in a report Finance Director Lindsay Dempsie offered — is higher than the comparable $7.75 million deficit projected a year ago when work started on the 2024 budget. And it’s also higher than the $8.39 million deficit projected two years ago for the 2023 budget. Both of those deficits, however, were subsequently reduced before commissioners turned to budget-balancing options.

For 2023, commissioners relied on the county’s fund balance and American Rescue Plan Act allocation to adopt a budget without an increase in real estate taxes. For 2024, they balanced the budget by relying on $3.34 million from the county’s reserve and a 10.37% increase in real estate taxes.

Based on numbers provided Monday, the county’s 2024 expenditures are projected, by the end of the year, to come at $1.88 million less than budgeted.

“So we didn’t spend quite as much as we expected,” Webster observed. “But we still spent more than our revenue.”

Another factor influencing the 2025 budget will be allocations for wage increases to address complaints about low salaries and inequities.

“We all share the goal of trying to increase salaries,” Commissioner Laura Burke said after Monday’s budget session. “But at the same time, we’re trying to consider these requests.”

Webster suggested that higher pay could be an option in departments and offices where jobs are combined and money is available.

“Or if they give up some of the things they’re requesting,” Webster said, “because we don’t have the money for what everybody is requesting.”

When combing through the sheriff office requests for the 2025 budget, commissioners removed one of two cruisers projected at a cost of $120,000, and indicated that the matter was subject to further discussion.

They also talked about asking for staggered purchasing of bulletproof vests for the deputies, rather than buying 20 in 2025 at a cost of $36,000. In addition, they discussed the idea of requiring deputies to return the vests to the county, rather than the current practice of allowing a deputy to retain a vest after more than a year of employment with the county.

Commissioners also allowed the 2025 budget to continue showing an expense of $544,500 for updated computer software that will manage the county’s real estate database in the assessment office. However, that proposed purchase comes with an annual maintenance agreement of $102,000, something Commissioner Dave Kessling said he wanted to know more about.

Commissioners reduced a 2025 budget request of $48,000 for outside court reporting services to $30,000 after reviewing that 2024 expenses have added up to $24,000 so far. They also allowed $5,000 for new court reporting training and certification.

In considering a request for changing how the county pays court-appointed attorneys in juvenile and adult courts — from stipends to hourly rates — Burke suggested an hourly rate of $90 that would equate to attorney rates in the Children, Youth & Families budget.

But she and fellow commissioners acknowledged that to calculate budget amounts, they need information as to the number of hours and cases.

The commissioners also removed a budgeted amount of $15,000 for replacement of a courtroom sound system. That expense surfaced this year when the sound system in Courtroom 3 had to be replaced.

Dempsie told commissioners that, if there’s no identified need for a new sound system, money could be designated in the contingency fund in case it’s needed.

Commissioners also received numerous requests from offices and departments in need of replacement chairs. While chairs are currently budgeted at $200 each, county leaders said that efforts are made to buy them when they’re on sale for less.

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