County holding line on taxes
Washington County trimmed nearly half a million in proposed spending for 2016, according to figures presented in the posted budget that is available to the public today. The document calls for the tax levy to remain at 24.9 mills next year.
The general fund budget of $84,996,307 was reduced by $480,136 from its preliminary phase that was formulated earlier this month. The biggest single cut was $443,000 from the Children and Youth Services proposed budget, achieved by not funding some additional positions and scaling back proposals for programs that weren’t being used by as many clients as originally thought.
The county hopes to offset part of this reduction by an increase in $93,000 in revenue that should become available if and when the state ends wrangling that began before the expiration of its fiscal year June 30 and adopts a 2015-16 budget.
Costs of incarceration at Washington County jail are increasing. The correctional facility housed 344 inmates at the end of October and the prison board entered into a contract with the Greene County jail to accept Washington County prisoners for various reasons, including excess capacity in Washington.
Warden John Temas reported to the prison board Wednesday that there were no Washington County inmates housed at Greene County jail as of last week, and the cost of housing inmates this year in the neighboring county was $26,600. The prison board, when adopting the program earlier this year, put in place a $30,000 cap.
Temas said if the amount would be exceeded, he would ask the prison board next month to increase the amount.
The facility, built in 1995 to house 258 inmates, now has an average monthly population in the 300s and the number of female inmates exceeded the space available. Male and female inmates cannot be housed together.
The overall jail budget increased 5.9 percent, now proposed at $7.844 million.
“It’s one of our challenges, although the county is doing very well as far as the economy and growth,” said Larry Maggi, chairman of the county board of commissioners. “But with that comes some of the dark side. We have a great working relationship with the court system, adult probation and Behavioral Health (and Developmental Services) to develop pre-trial services trying to deal with nonviolent offenders.
They’re going to be under the auspices of the courts, but we’re not paying to incarcerate them because they cannot afford bail.”
Maggi, a former state trooper and sheriff, stressed the pre-trial service would not be made available to those charged with violent crimes because “there are people who are in (jail) who need to be in there and shouldn’t be out under any circumstances.”
While the jail population is exploding, another county facility has excess capacity. Although it is not included in the general fund budget, county taxpayers were subsidizing the Washington County Health Center in Arden to the tune of $1.5 million this year. A year ago, the expenditure was estimated at one-third of that amount.
Maggi said he expects the board to advertise for a request for proposals from prospective consultants “to look to see what we can do to stem the loss of revenue out there. We have a great health center, it’s state of the art. We’d like to see how we can stop the drain to the taxpayers on this.”
There were 257 residents as of Wednesday at the health center, which has a capacity of 288. The target is to house 280 residents, but industry-wide trends emphasize home care rather than institutionalization, Maggi said.
“The other nursing facilities are experiencing the same thing: declining census,” he continued.
There are other areas of the budget that have changed.
The elections office has, in the posted budget, a 27.2 percent increase in “conduct of elections, because of increased turnout in next year’s presidential election year and the raise the commissioners enacted for local election board. The $473,000 estimated expenditures this year are expected to escalate to $601,900.
Eliminated from the 2016 posted budget was a $28,800 subsidy to the Mid Mon Valley Transit Authority, which has shunned merging with the Washington County Transportation Authority. After urging by the state that began several years ago, Washington City Transit and the county transportation agency formed a new entity during the past year. The commissioners a year ago eliminated the subsidy to Mid Mon Valley, which operates commuter service to Pittsburgh in addition to routes among Mon Valley communities and shopping centers, but then granted a supplemental appropriation of $15,300.
The 2016 budget is the last one that will be prepared under the property assessment that was completed in 1981. Homeowners will be receiving their new assessments early next year, and the figure will be based on 100 percent of market value instead of the previous 25 percent.
In the wake of a court case, the commissioners entered into a $6.9 million contract with Tyler Technologies Inc. to conduct the reassessment. As of yesterday, the county paid Tyler $5,192,044. The county was able to pay Tyler without borrowing the money due largely to natural gas and oil revenue extracted from wells beneath Cross Creek County Park. The price of petroleum products, however, fell off and the county’s revenues decreased by 75 percent.
Changes can be made to the posted budget, and the commissioners expect to adopt the final budget at their last meeting of the year Dec. 17.