For the eighth consecutive year, the county will not be increasing real estate millage, but in order to provide a balanced budget for 2025, monies from the fund balance will need to be used. How much will be needed is still to be determined as work continues to make “significant budget cuts” prior to the approval of the final budget on Dec. 19, according to Mya Toon, director of financial management at the county.

The need to have a balanced budget pits having a healthy fund balance against raising taxes, something the commissioners and Toon both stressed would be a “last resort” in trying to achieve a balanced budget. The current millage rate is 6.5 mills and will remain at that amount for 2025 provided it is approved by the commissioners.

A fund balance is the amount of money the county needs to have on hand to pay their bills, an amount which usually is at a two month level, but is currently at one month. It represents the difference between actual financing sources and total actual expenditures at the end of the fiscal year. That amount is then carried over to the next year.

“I know I was very shocked in October when we were told we had no money to get through the rest of the year,” Commissioner Marc Sortman said.

Working together the necessary funds were found for the immediate needs.

“We found the money — we came up with the money, we’re going to get through the year, but we’re not going to do this every year for the next three years. We’re going to fix the problems we have,” he said.

The 2025 budget, as presented at this week’s Lycoming County Commissioners’ meeting by Toon, totals $132,649,300. Of that, the total operating budget of $117,649,321 reflects a $39.7 million, or 23.03%, decrease over the current 2024 budget. It also represents a 7.28% increase in revenues.

“This budget also reflects the reality of running a county in the wake of spiking inflation; addressing decades of deferred capital projects; the effects of significant employee turnover and transition; and acknowledging the completion of access to federal COVID-19 relief funds,” Toon told the commissioners.

“Three persisting concerns have been recurrent to me over the last several budgets. First, the general fund consistently experiences expenditure growth that outpaces revenue and second, ongoing and rising inflation. And third, the capital budget lacks a dedicated funding source. The continual rise in the cost of delivering services has not been matched by the corresponding revenue growth, leading to a structural deficit,” Toon said.

“To bridge this gap, the fund balance has been used to balance the budget during the last several years to facilitate and enable the financing of crucial infrastructure enhancements and capital expenditures. As a result, this has decreased our fund balance, although we still have much work to do to get a structurally balanced budget, recognizing and addressing these budget issues now is certainly a step in the right direction,” she said.

The main drivers of expenses for the county are: general governmental, which are costs related to the administration of county government, such as the commissioners, voter registration, human resources, maintenance and budget and finance ($18,786,376); human services which is comprised of Children and Youth and Veterans’ Affairs ($12,729,605); judicial which includes, the sheriff, the coroner, the courts, District Attorney and Public Defender, ($17,617,996); and public works-liquid fuels, Community Development Block grants, flood mitigation, economic development and resource management services are examples of departments that make up this category ($28,091,084). Public Safety — which includes the prison, adult and juvenile probation, communications, emergency services and hazardous materials — also accounts for a large part of the expenses at $26,740,831.

Taxes represent the main source of income at $36,645,429, followed by grants at $37,149,210; fee income, $23,151,961; and fund balance, $16,789,919.

Commissioner Scott Metzger cautioned that this is not a final budget.

“This is a proposed budget…we’re going to continue to work on this. We want that fund balance up higher. We want to get it up another $10 million,” Metzger said.

“We want to walk into 2025 somewhere between $12 and $14 million and we feel that making more cuts and then moving the capital projects out on the bond going into next year,” he added.