Nov 18, 2016 5 min read

The second version of the county’s budget, known as the “posted budget,” is now available for public inspection at the commissioners’ office on the seventh floor of Courthouse Square.

The commissioners have said that the approximately $89.8 million 2017 budget will be “revenue neutral,” in light of the county property reassessment, and they envision the county’s 2017 tax levy of 24.9 mills to be reduced to a tad less than 2.5 mills.

“There are going to be repercussions from this for years to come,” said commission Chairman Larry Maggi. Although the county’s contract for the reassessment with Tyler Technologies Inc. was $6.96 million, Maggi said the “hidden costs” have brought the total close to $9 million as taxpayers foot the bill for appeals boards and clerical support, court-appointed masters and aerial photography separate from street-level pictures taken by Tyler.

“This money could’ve been used for bridges, infrastructure, maintenance,” he continued. “There are no restrictions, but we had to use it on this archaic system of reassessment. There are not going to be any winners or losers in this thing. Our numbers are going to be out of whack again because this system is so bad. The courts are going to be clogged with appeals.”

The Washington and McGuffey school districts took the commissioners to court in 2008 demanding that the county reassess, which the commissioners did when they ran out of legal options. The commissioners at one time expressed dismay that county taxpayers would have to foot the bill for the reassessment by floating a bond issue, but they avoided borrowing by using natural gas and oil royalties from leases on or beneath county properties.

Royalty is a share of the product or profit reserved by the grantor, or land owner, from an oil or gas lease.

The county between Sept. 1, 2014, through Aug. 31, 2015, received $3,468,293 in royalties. The market price of natural gas and oil dipped between Sept. 1, 2015, and Aug. 31 of this year, but the county’s royalties in this period totaled $3,123,170, according to figures provided by the county Finance Department.

During the first decade of operations between 2003 and 2013, Washington County received a total of $8.8 million from royalties and leases related to gas extracted through Range Resources wells at the 3,000-acre Cross Creek County Park.

The county also has received several million dollars from the Act 13 Impact Fee signed into law in 2012, which distributes to counties and municipalities funds derived from extraction in fractured shale formations. Various restrictions are placed on the use of Act 13 money, for which the county budgeted approximately $1.5 million in 2016.

The commissioners expect to adopt the budget at their final meeting of the year, scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 15.

If a county or local government or school district plans to raise taxes for 2017, its budget vote must be a two-step process. The first step sets tax millage that would maintain revenue neutrality. A second vote is required by law to demonstrate the disparity between the two levies.

Under 2016’s property assessment, one mill brings in about $1.5 million. One mill under the 2017 assessment will be worth about $17 million.

A year ago, the county was projecting the value of taxable property to be $1,657,121,256, based on 25 percent of 1981 values. The new number, based on 100 percent of the properties’ value in 2015, is pegged at $17,218,319,812.

How much of the $17 billion figure will be reduced by the courts through the appeals process is yet to be seen.

The commissioners expect to hire an attorney to assist Blane Black, solicitor for the Tax Revenue Department, in handling assessment appeals taken to court.

This is just one example of proposed personnel costs.

Sheriff Samuel Romano has requested two additional deputies, but the commissioners have not yet decided whether to grant these and other departmental requests for additional staff and salary increases until figures appear in the 2017 budget’s final version. The courts have also requested an additional deputy to be assigned to security duty at domestic relations proceedings, with 55 percent of this deputy’s salary and benefits to be borne by state taxpayers.

A recent development was the ratification this week of a contract by approximately 30 court-related, court-appointed county employees who are members of the Service Employee International Union, said Scott Fergus, Washington County director of administration. The commissioners expect to vote on the contract next month.

Negotiations were scheduled for Thursday with the county’s largest SEIU collective bargaining unit, representing about 500 workers at the courthouse complex in downtown Washington and Washington County Health Center in Arden, Chartiers Township. Their contract expires Dec. 31.

The county plans an infusion of approximately $3 million in 2017 toward the cost of running the 288-bed health center.

In another matter related to the 2017 budget, the commissioners on Thursday renewed the county’s contract with Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield for health insurance, reflecting an 8 percent increase. The health reimbursement account for out-of-pocket medical expenses and insurance premiums will have a 1.71 percent increase. The county will continue to provide $200 per month to those who opt out of the county’s health insurance. “Medigap” insurance through Highmark Freedom for those hired before April 1, 2004, and who later retired, had a 12 percent increase. Approximately 520 retirees are entitled to the benefit, reversing a trend. An additional 540 retirees are ineligible because the commissioners in 2004 ended the practice of providing the supplement.