MERCER COUNTY Lazor votes no on tax increase

The cost of hospitalization insurance is also putting pressure on the county budget.
BY MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County Commissioner Olivia Lazor wants to find out if there is a way to avoid or reduce a 3-mill tax increase next year by providing alternative housing for county jail prisoners.
Commissioners passed a preliminary budget by a 2-1 vote Thursday. The budget includes a 3-mill tax increase. Lazor cast the dissenting vote, and said Friday she didn't find out about the planned increase until late Wednesday afternoon when it was & quot;too late for me to do anything about it."
She said she will not vote for the tax increase "until I look at every penny and expenditure and revenue. & quot;
Commissioner Kenneth Seamans, who voted with Commissioner Gene Brenneman to pass the preliminary budget with the tax increase, denied that he and Brenneman had kept Lazor "in the dark." He insisted he had talked to her about it and noted that she has no alternative budget proposal.
Lazor wants to determine whether the county can lease or rent modular housing units and install them in the county jail's back parking lot to house 20 to 24 inmates on work release.
She said this has "been talked about" but said no one has "taken the initiative" to find out if it will work. She said that though some counties did it years ago, she knows of no other county currently using the modular units.
If it is feasible, using the modular housing could help reduce the skyrocketing costs of paying other jails to house the overflow from the crowded Mercer County facility. Next year, the cost of out-of-county housing of inmates is expected to run $1.5 million and is a major factor in the anticipated tax increase.
Another expense
The other strain on the 2003 budget is an increase in the cost of providing hospitalization insurance to employees. That contract is renewed each April.
This year the increase was a higher-than-anticipated 33 percent, and it will rise 25 additional percent next April. Lazor said that of the county's 317 full-time employees, about 300 use the health insurance benefit.
The majority of the employees pay 10 percent toward their premiums except for those belonging to one union and Lazor said the county is trying to negotiate a similar contribution with that union.
Although construction of a new jail is planned, Lazor said Friday it will not be advertised for bids until January or February. She added that construction will take at least 18 months.
But she said even the new jail will not cure the county's budget problems overnight because more personnel will have to be hired to run the bigger facility.
County Fiscal Administrator Tresa Templeton said housing the overflow of prisoners from the county jail is also getting more expensive because all the nearby jails are filled and increasingly prisoners are being sent to jails like Cambria County, nearly a three-hour drive.
Problem with borrowing
The county will have to borrow to finish this fiscal year, which ends Dec. 31. An $800,000 carryover had originally been estimated. But Templeton said a $500,000 shortfall is now expected and that borrowing will impact the 2003 budget.
In addition, she said that money borrowed in previous years to balance the budget has still not all been repaid. The lack of a carryover will leave no cushion for next year's unexpected expenses, she said, pointing out, for example, that Sheriff Bill Romine was on track for 2002 overtime wages until the tornado hit Clark two weeks ago.
If it is approved next month, the anticipated 3-mill increase will cost the average taxpayer $57.75 per year, according to tax collector Mickey DeForest.
The preliminary budget breakdown shows total general fund anticipated revenue of $20,176,428 and expenses of $19,344,487.
Commissioners can make changes in the preliminary budget until final adoption, set for Dec. 12.
Last year, commissioners raised taxes 2 mills.