Sep 14, 2016 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – With some budget variables remaining uncertain, including assessment values and union contracts, Greene County officials scheduled public budget hearings with department heads to discuss next year’s spending plan.

The hearings will begin Tuesday and continue through Sept. 30 and will give budget officials and the county commissioners the opportunity to hear funding requests from various department heads and elected officials.

“This will allow department heads and elected officials to make their requests in public,” county Chief Clerk Jeff Marshall said. “Anyone from the public who is interested in a certain office can come in and hear the presentation and what is being asked for.”

Budget hearings were resumed last year following about a 10-year absence, when the county was trying to hold the line on spending as a result of the state budget impasse. The hearings were not well attended, in fact, no one from the public showed up for them, Marshall said.

This year, the state budget is not an issue with the Legislature having adopted a budget in July that kept funding for county programs fairly level, Marshall said.

Other issues that remain undetermined could still impact the county budget outlook.

“We’re still trying to keep spending as level as we can,” Marshall said.

The commissioners do not want to see a tax increase.

“That is our goal,” he said.

Among this year’s concerns, Marshall said, is an expected decrease in coal assessment values resulting from the closing of Emerald Mine and assessment appeals. Certified values are expected to be presented to the commissioners in November.

The county also expects to see increases in health care and liability insurance and workers compensation ranging from 5 to 7 percent and must resolve all four employee union contracts which expire Dec. 31.

Budget hearings have been scheduled only for those departments seeking increases outside the normal increases attributed to contractual costs or cost-of-living increases.

“The only ones scheduled are for the department heads or elected officials asking for more than the normal variance in their budgets,” Marshall said. “If they are starting a new program, or asking for new hires or for additional money for various items, we’re asking them to present it in a public request.”

Departments that do not plan to make such requests will have their budgets prepared by county budget officials that will include the normal annual increases for salaries, services and supplies.

The schedule for the budget hearings can be found on the county website at www.co-greene.pa.us. All hearings will be held in the second floor conference room of the county office building.

The commissioners plan to approve the county’s proposed budget on Nov. 17. They must adopt the spending plan before Jan. 1.