McKean County 2015: division remains / By Martha Knight

SMETHPORT—There will be a slight addition in spending, if McKean County Commissioners adopt the proposed 2015 budget. No tax increase is contemplated. But there is a division among commissioners Joe DeMott, Al Pingie and Cliff Lane.

The proposed budget calls for spending $16,080,822, compared with $15,967,728 budgeted for 2014. Real estate taxes will remain at 9.25 mills, or $9.25 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

The division in the commissioner ranks finds chairman DeMott declaring he will not vote for the proposed budget, while fellow commissioners say they believe the fiscal plan is right for the coming year, and will vote to approve it.

The formal decision will be made at the commissioners’ meeting scheduled to be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, December 23. Meanwhile the budget document is available for perusal at the Court House.

Daylight between the usually closed ranks of the commissioners was glimpsed when DeMott did not issue a budget letter on behalf of the board, as has been his custom.

Queried about that at the December 9 meeting, DeMott said he is not satisfied with the budget in its present state because “I believe we need a tax increase.” He cited some losses of revenue, without commensurate declines in costs.

Appeals of tax assessments, a decline in forest reserve use values in the Clean and Green program and contributions to the retirement plan funding below the actuary’s recommendations were items DeMott listed causing some decline in revenues.

“We have a successful veterans’ exemption program,” DeMott said. “I don’t begrudge our veterans [property tax relief], but it does decrease our taxable property.”

DeMott described his reservations about the proposed budget as representing not so much a policy disagreement with the other commissioners as “a difference of philosophy.” He is reluctant to see “the total assets of the county fall.”

Act 13 impact fee revenues, based on Marcellus Shale drilling in the county, comes to the county, and some is distributed to the county’s municipalities. DeMott would prefer to see the county’s portion “go into special projects.”

Costs of the 911 service rise every year, while the revenues do not keep pace.

“We have to recognize that our taxable assessments are going down. We need to adjust” rates to offset tax base shrinkage, DeMott said.

Lane was hopeful that the county will end the year in good fiscal shape, with some funds to carry over. Books have not closed on 2014, so year-end balances are estimates.

However, there are areas where money has been saved. For instance, the jail no longer pays to house numerous prisoners elsewhere because of overcrowding here. Instead, the county receives board for housing prisoners from out of the county.

The commissioners agreed that the county loses some revenue in that many newly constructed buildings as well as improvements do not make it onto the tax rolls. In most municipalities there is no mechanism for the end results of permits to be forwarded to the assessment office. But demolitions usually are reported by owners, who seek to have their assessments lowered.

Pingie said the proposed budget is a “tight” one, with little slack, compared with some past budgets.

Lane said the commissioners and budget director Dustin Laurie have “worked with our department directors” to hold the line on spending.

“We have a certain fiscal responsibility to do whatever we can not to raise taxes,” Lane said.

The commissioners usually have adopted their proposed budget without change, making it the final budget for the upcoming year. Law permits them to make changes in the proposed budget before voting to adopt it in final form.

At the same meeting they levy taxes, including the property tax and per capita tax. A majority vote is sufficient (two of the three commissioners), but approval has been unanimous in recent years.