County holds line on taxes
Published: December 14, 2009
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share thisSusquehanna County property owners are not likely to see a county tax increase in 2010.
The proposed budget, which hit the table last week, differs only slightly overall from the 2009 budget. The total 2010 county budget is $19,265,553, a $61,532 decrease from the 2009 budget.
The 2010 general fund is budgeted at $8,727,288, a $366,195 increase over 2009.
“Everyone was cooperative in keeping the budget to the bare minimum,” said Chief Clerk Sylvia Beamer.
Most county departments will see slight increases in 2010 but a few departments will have to operate on less money than allocated in 2009.
Over $67,000 was taken out of the Drug & Alcohol Commission budget. In 2009, the commissioners had budgeted over $128,000 for the department but have since, in the absence of a D&A director, transferred oversight of the department to Lackawanna/Susquehanna MH/MR, which accounts for the overall budget cut.
The election bureau budget was cut by about $11,000 in 2010. However, the voter registrar budget increased by about $13,000.
In 2010, the county anticipates several significant revenue increases in some departments.
The District Justice office in New Milford projects an $8,000 increase in revenue, from $42,000 to $50,000; while the DJ office in Montrose anticipates a $3,000 revenue increase from $22,000 to $25,000 and the Clifford office expects to hold the line with $25,000 in anticipated revenue for 2010.
But natural gas activity driven deed research is projected to spur revenue gains in the recorder of deeds office upward again in 2010. A $40,000 raise in the office’s revenue to $270,000 is anticipated in 2010, up from ‘09s $230,000.
The commissioners’ office received over a $75,000 bump in budgeted expenditures from 2009; raising the office budget to $700,420 with no significant increase in anticipated revenue and/or office salaries in 2010.
Hospitalization and health insurance attributed to most of the office’s increase. Legal fees received a $10,000 increase over the 2009 budgeted amount raising the total line item up to $50,000.
