Centre County Commissioners adopt $107.7 million budget for 2022 with no tax increase
The Centre County Board of Commissioners officially adopted the county’s 2022 budget by unanimous vote Tuesday, with a total operating budget of $107.7 million dollars.
Of the total $107.7 million budget, the operating budget is $106,329,704 and the capital budget is $1,431,813.
For the 12th straight year, residents will not see a tax increase; the commissioners approved the total millage of 7.84 mills. To go 12 years without a tax increase is “nearly unprecedented,” Commissioner Mark Higgins said.
The proposed budget was adopted by commissioners earlier this month and residents had a 20-day review period. County Administrator Margaret Gray said the county did not receive any questions during that time. There were no substantial changes to the budget, either.
“We will continue to receive public feedback on our budget as we go throughout 2022. We constantly are making amendments and changes to it,” Chairman Michael Pipe said.
The board thanked the county employees for their hard work and effort throughout the year and in the budget making process. There was a lot of collaboration and feedback among the departments.
“It’s not a perfect budget and it’s unprecedented in a lot of ways; 2021 was certainly not an easy one and 2022 won’t be probably much better. But I think we’ve got the tools and the financing capability of making county government run pretty effectively,” Commissioner Steve Dershem said. “I’m really excited to work with the board to make sure that 2022 is a success. And we have a lot of opportunity, I think moving forward, to do some pretty amazing things for the citizens of Centre County and we have, I think, the enthusiasm to do that.”
Highlights of the budget include raises for county employees across the board. A salary study is in the works as well, which will be complete in 2022 for the commissioners to review and potentially act upon.
The total compensation expenditures — salaries, taxes and benefits — totals a 6.4% increase over the 2021 budget, Corey Troutman, managing shareholder at Susquehanna Accounting and Consulting Solutions, said during a previous meeting. That includes about $8.7 million in funding for health insurance and the county’s Actuarially Determined Contribution to fund the Centre County Employees’ Retirement System, according to the budget summary.
The budget also includes capital funds and encumbrances for the completion of the courthouse renovations, and building upgrades and repairs, according to the budget summary.
The general fund expenditure budget increased by about $1.85 million over the 2021 budget, with the majority of that coming from salaries and benefits. Other notable general fund department increases that the county pointed out were the prothonotary (a system upgrade for $252,000), elections (operating increases of $237,000 due to mail-in ballots and advertisement) and the prison ($147,000, with most of that from medical contracted services).
There are areas that could potentially still be impacted by the pandemic, like real estate taxes, hotel tax revenue, revenues for services and lower interest earnings, Troutman previously said. The county’s budget reflects approximately $2.5 million of American Rescue Plan funding to continue to provide county services at its existing level, he said.
