Eight of the 11 Luzerne County Council members approved a 2023 budget with a 2.99% tax increase Thursday, with some members highlighting exhaustive efforts to make cuts without compromising required services.
Council started the budget process in October facing a 6.75% increase proposed by former manager Randy Robertson, which would equate to $55 more on the average property assessed at $132,776.
In the first two rounds of cuts, council reduced the increase to 5.25% and then 3.25%.
After a reduction in the reserve approved Thursday, council settled on a budget containing the 2.99% increase, which amounts to $24.50 more on a $132,776 property.
Council members Brian Thornton, Kevin Lescavage and Stephen J. Urban voted against the tax increase, although Thornton and Lescavage said they appreciate the hard work of their colleagues coming up with cuts to reduce the increase.
Following the vote, council Vice Chairman John Lombardo noted some council members spent many hours behind the scene brainstorming ways to shave requests that weren’t always well received by impacted departments. When managers said they can’t function with a suggested cut, council agreed to reconsider.
“Did they always get exactly what they wanted? No. But we revisited those issues,” Lombardo said. “I’m extremely proud of the council members who worked tirelessly on making budget amendments that brought us down to where we are today.”
Putting the budget to rest also left him with more confidence the often divided council can reach more of a consensus — not a 5-6 vote split — in tackling major duties.
“Now that this important task is behind us, I hope we can work on other issues at hand and solve them,” Lombardo said. “This was a heavy lift, and I really think we rose to the occasion.”
To get the tax increase below 3%, a council majority approved Councilman Tim McGinley’s motion to further lower the budget reserve to $245,000.
This year’s budget contained a $1.23 million reserve for unforeseen emergencies, and next year’s proposed budget factored in $1.05 million. Council had agreed earlier this week to lower the reserve to $500,000 after Acting County Manager Brian Swetz said he did not believe the action would hurt the county’s credit rating. Swetz reasoned that credit rating agencies look at the stability of the overall budget and not one specific line item.
In addition to Lombardo and McGinley, the other council members supporting the budget Thursday: Carl Bienias III, LeeAnn McDermott, Matthew Mitchell, Chris Perry, Kendra Radle and Gregory S. Wolovich Jr.
Thornton, Lescavage and Urban supported many of the budget amendments but did not formally propose any.
Shortly before the vote, Lescavage brought up the idea of using federal American Rescue Plan funds to further lower the increase to 1%. Swetz said he would not advocate using one-time funds to cover recurring expenses, and McGinley noted council already agreed to cover some of the one-time purchases or projects from American Rescue funding when those items were cut from the budget. After this feedback, Lescavage did not make a motion to vote on his proposal.