Police? Or social services? State College Borough Council passes budget during heated meeting
Faced with a decision between funding more police next year or social services at the expense of police, State College’s Borough Council picked a different option Monday night — essentially funding both while taking from the borough’s rainy day fund.
During budget discussions, the Council voted 4-3 in favor of approving the 2021 budget, which includes no tax rate increase. The budget funds 60 police officers next year, allocating $235,000 to fund the creation of a Police Civilian Response Team (e.g. civilians serving mental health warrants alongside police) and setting aside another $165,000 for the creation of a Community Oversight Board for the police department.
Last month, the proposal on the table was to fund 58 officers while using savings to fund the response team and oversight board from the police department’s budget. The move to “defund the police” proved to be a hot-button issue in the community, which brought out dozens of public comments in support of such a move earlier this month, before the Council opted to move in a different direction Monday.
“This is not a perfect budget. It is an unbalanced budget, and we will have to deal with it — maybe more than once,” Councilwoman Theresa Lafer said via Zoom. “But it is a functional budget. It will help us through the six and 12 months ahead, as we see what happens in COVID, changes in Washington and the reality of our lives.”
The latest move is still technically a slight reduction in the police force, as 62 officers were originally authorized in the 2020 budget. But with positions frozen throughout the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, State College was down to 54 sworn officers earlier this month and started 2020 with exactly 60 officers.
The reason Council did not initially consider tapping into the borough’s rainy day fund is because such a move is “not sustainable,” according to the borough manager, because the borough cannot continue to operate each year at a loss. Overall, when taking all the funds into account, the borough boasts about a $44.5 million surplus — but is expected to operate at about a $14.5 million loss in 2021.
The pandemic’s impact on next year’s finances is also not yet fully known. If COVID-19 affects whether residents can pay their property taxes, for instance, that could have a further impact on State College’s revenue — making future cuts or future tax hikes a possibility.
“As we noted when the budget was presented, this is a structurally unbalanced budget. It is a reflection of COVID-19 planning, and it is not sustainable in the long run,” borough manager Tom Fountaine said. “And there will be some tough choices and decisions that will need to be made going forward. But, given the unknowns that we’re facing, I did not want to recommend a budget that included tax increases and other things.”
Those who voted in favor of the budget — Janet Engeman, Lafer, Peter Marshall and Katherine Yeaple — largely painted the amended budget as not being all that different from the initial one, which saw the police department budget directly pay for those other services. But those opposed — Jesse Barlow, Deanna Behring and Evan Myers — expressed concerns about whether those initiatives could potentially be discontinued down the road due to the lack of stability associated with using the rainy day fund, even if the funding will consist of a line item from the General Fund.
“My feeling is that if we don’t adequately fund initiatives already endorsed by the council, we will not be true to the votes that we took,” Myers said. “Council was presented with testimony over and over again during the last year from people who do not just feel discrimination from police and other agencies, but also gave examples. That’s the reality. We ignore such voices at our peril.”
The open forum for public discussion featured a hodge-podge of heated opinions, personal attacks and overt racism — some of which was only loosely related to the budget. One speaker commented on how the Black population is statistically more likely to commit certain crimes, ignoring the fact a number of studies suggest poverty — and not race — is to blame. Another resident criticized the mayor for trying to cut him off, when he was accused of straying from the budgetary issue at hand, and then needled Lafer with Lafer shouting back, “Shut up, mister!”
Several community members also continually referred to the death of Osaze Osagie, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot and killed by police, as a “suicide.” Members of the 3/20 Coalition, a local group formed after Osagie’s death last March, have repeatedly referred to such language as unnecessary and disrespectful.
The last member of the public to speak, Ezra Nanes, a borough resident and candidate for September’s interim council seat, said it was difficult to hear all the pain and name-calling Monday night.
“I think Councilperson Behring said it very well: Budgets are a statement of philosophy, and they express strategy and what we stand for,” Nanes said. “I think there is a big difference in these two budgets, and we have to recognize that. There’s symbolism in this.
“And if you fund programs that mean a great deal to parts of this community, or the reserves that aren’t guaranteed secure funding, you’re sending a message that they’re not permanent, that they don’t really belong in the core of the budget.”
Below is a further breakdown of the 2021 budget:
- General Fund: $31,986,374 in expenditures ($30,712,292 in revenue)
- Insurance Reserves: $891,778 in expenditures ($330,000 in revenue)
- Bus Terminal Fund: $46,671 in expenditures ($46,671 in revenue)
- Bellaire Court Fund: $143,558 in expenditures ($143,558 in revenue)
- Parking Fund: $3,502,830 in expenditures ($2,410,434 in revenue)
- Compost Operations Fund: $861,664 in expenditures ($677,302 in revenue)
- Sanitary Sewer Fund: $8,960,571 in expenditures ($6,125,500 in revenue)
- Refuse Collection Fund: $4,430,868 in expenditures ($4,144,222 in revenue)
- Capital Fund: $18,541,176 in expenditures ($11,234,540 in revenue)
- Asset Replacement Fund: $306,935 in expenditures ($25,000 in revenue)
- Fleet Services: $601,054 in expenditures ($601,054 in revenue)
- Highway Aid Fund: $1,984,900 in expenditures ($933,067 in revenue)
- Centre Tax Agency: $1,019,947 in expenditures ($1 million in revenue)
- SCB HOME Fund: $288,313 in expenditures ($288,313 in revenue)
- CDBG Fund: $519,686 in expenditures ($504,649 in revenue)
- Interfund Transfers: ($4,974,846)
The total expenditures for 2021 amount to $69,441,479 while the revenue is projected at $54,546,793.
The next State College Borough Council meeting will be held 7 p.m. on Jan. 4, with the next work session scheduled for 11:15 a.m. on Jan. 8.
