LAWRENCE COUNTY Can tax rise be avoided?

One commissioner proposed a four-day work week for employees.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- With a $4 million deficit looming, a tax increase is inevitable, said Lawrence County Commissioner Ed Fosnaught.
"Unless we reduce the cost of county government, there is going to be a huge tax increase," Fosnaught said.
County commissioners have been hashing out the county's 2004 spending plan over the last few weeks and are expected to introduce it on Dec. 11. It must be passed by Dec. 31.
Fosnaught's fellow commissioners aren't in agreement over how to handle the deficit.
Other options
Commissioner Roger DeCarbo says he will not vote for a real estate tax increase.
"There are so many other ways of doing things than going to the taxpayers. They are not easy options. They are not comfortable options, but I will not vote for a tax increase without exercising those options," DeCarbo said.
A four-day work week for employees and a pay freeze are just a few of DeCarbo's ideas to save money next year. DeCarbo did not seek re-election and his term ends this year.
The commissioner concedes to get either done it would take court action. The county administrator has been instructed to contact attorneys to see if it is possible.
The third county commissioner, Brian Burick, said he hasn't yet decided how to handle the deficit.
"I want all of the information in front of me before I make a decision," he said.
Stance on expenditures
Burick said he does have strong feelings about some of the expenditures.
He will not vote to give Hill View Manor, the county nursing home, the requested $500,000 from the general fund. Nor will he agree to fund the county pension fund $650,000 needed to cover its liabilities, he said. That's an expense the county has not had in the last eight years, he said.
Burick said expenses with both could have been avoided.
He has been a longtime advocate of selling the nursing home and had a nonprofit company interested several years ago. A second sale to a private firm fell through this summer.
Burick said he had also proposed some changes in the pension fund investments about four years ago that could have curbed some of the liability, but others refused.
Burick, however, will support a $100,000 general fund expense for the county 911 service.
He said 911 has been operating on the $1.25 surcharge on all land lines in the county, but that revenue has decreased with the popularity of cellular telephones.
He said without the $100,000, dispatchers will be laid off.
Burick is also leaving office at the end of the year. He was not elected to a third term.
Commissioners say they are also trying to hold the line on new expenses. At Thursday's caucus meeting, they said no new positions will be created at the county's annual salary board meeting next week.
The deficit
The $4 million county deficit has gone largely unchanged in the last few weeks.
About half of it comes from the normal increases in county government such as salary increases governed by union contracts and health insurance costs.
The other half comes from extra expenses at Hill View Manor and the pension contribution which is now needed because of the poor performance of the stock market. The county has not contributed anything to the pension fund in the last eight years.
But the largest expense comes from the county Children and Youth Services. The department was without a financial officer and is behind on submitting paperwork for its state reimbursements. The county has had to front about $1 million to the department to continue its work until that money is released.
cioffi@vindy.com