By LAURA JAMESON ljameson@lockhaven.com
LOCK HAVEN - The Clinton County Board of Commissioners adopted its 2024 budget with a 0.5 mill tax increase.
The $55.4 million budget was initially presented by Ed Zack, representing Susquehanna Accounting Services, in November.
At the time, Zack cited increased costs and the need to revisit wages in an increasingly competitive hiring market as to why the 0.5 mill was recommended.
Zack provided a breakdown of the proposed budget in November.
This included referencing the breakdown of wages from 2021 to the proposed budget in 2024.
"When you look at this comparison of the actual wages from 2021 and 2022 all the way to what we're budgeting for in 2024, there's a 20 percent increase," he said.
This increase isn't due to the county hiring more staff, Zack said, but has to do with a competitive hiring market.
"The county is now in a bidding war with private industry, other counties, state and federal," he said. "You cannot hire people. So they have to be very competitive to be able to keep up with those entities."
Zack noted he and his firm work in multiple counties that are dealing with the same issues - particularly in correctional facilities, 911 services and human resources.
"It's a very highly competitive market. And the county had no choice but to increase the wages to be competitive to fill those wages," he said. "So obviously if the correctional facility didn't have correctional officers and if the county had to farm out these prisoners they would be at a much higher cost. They would be paying at least $100 per day for their prisoners."
Zack said the county was able to avoid a tax increase for the last three years because it utilized reserve funding and other funds, including grants, to offset costs.
"In the last three years the county used some of its fund balance reserves and some of the monies they received, and they were able to avoid a tax increase for the last three budget seasons," he said.
However, due to a decrease in intergovernmental revenue and an increase in costs, Zack said his firm had to make the recommendation to increase the county's millage rate.
No public comment was made prior to the board's unanimous approval to adopt the budget as presented.
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