Nov 11, 2015 3 min read

With gas and oil revenues down 75 percent from wells and extraction from beneath Washington County-owned park and other land, the county has dipped into part of its $19 million surplus to keep governmental operations such as the health center and jail functioning next year.

The preliminary general fund budget of $85,476,443 includes a $7 million infusion of cash from the surplus that’s known as the “fund balance.”

For the sixth year in a row, property owners should find no increase in the their county tax levy of 24.9 mills. Property owners won’t be seeing county tax bills until the first of the year, and when they arrive, they will be the last under the property assessment that took effect in 1981.

Costs of guarding, housing, feeding and providing medical care to jail inmates has increased $2.8 million in the past 10 years as the population has risen.

The facility, built in 1995 to house 258 inmates, now has an average monthly population in the high 300s, and the county prison board has had to house some inmates in Greene County jail, which has excess capacity.

Neither does the Washington County jail have the biggest budget around. Butler County, for example, spends more than $10 million annually for its jail, according to Roger Metcalfe, Washington County finance director.

Under the preliminary spending plan, the county will also transfer approximately $1.5 million to the health center, and debt service will be increasing by about $300,000.

The county’s most recent bond issues from previous years included $3 million worth of new borrowing for equipment at the county airport, repairs to the Justice Center nonpublic parking garage near the county jail, restoration of the courthouse and the purchase of $1.3 million in software upgrades for the county property tax revenue department.

Because of its oil and gas revenue, the county did not have to borrow money to pay the $6.96 million bill to Tyler Technologies Inc., the firm chosen to conduct the countywide property reassessment. The county fought a prolonged court battle over the Washington and McGuffey school districts’ demand for the reassessment.

Because of the Marcellus Shale Impact Fee, known as Act 13, the county did not have to borrow money to pay for projects that are included under the act.

The newly consolidated county and city public transit agencies have received a 62.9 percent increase in the preliminary budget for the paratransit service known as Washington Rides. That figure is $73,325, up from $45,000 last year. Although it has chosen not to participate in a countywide transit consolidation, Mid-Mon Valley Transit has requested $28,800 for next year.

The second version of the county’s spending plan, known as the “posted budget,” will be ready for public inspection later this month, and the commissioners expect to adopt the final budget at their last meeting of the year Dec. 17.