LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. — The Lackawanna County commissioners released a tentative $150 million budget for next year on Friday. The budget includes no increase in property taxes.
The budget also continues to fund programs that county residents rely on, but county commissioners say there is still work to be done.
"This budget message is a work in progress. We have approximately six more weeks to finalize it, and I feel comfortable with it. I think we're definitely heading in the right direction," said Lackawanna County Commissioner Jerry Notarianni.
The commissioners recently hired Dave Balzoni as Lackawanna County's chief financial officer with the hope that he can help determine what can be trimmed from the budget and what needs to stay. The hope is to get the county into a more financially stable place after the pandemic.
"We've suffered over $12 million in the last few years in lost revenues, so I think, even at the starting point of an $8 million deficit, we're better than we could be," said Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak.
County residents we spoke with were happy to hear they shouldn't be paying more in property taxes next year.
"I don't know why they would increase it, but it's too high now as far as I'm concerned, but I'm glad to hear there's no increase," Joe Edwards said.
"There are still a lot of people in our area, a lot of older people that do have homes and that. So I think this is really helpful to them. Anyone on the fixed income appreciates it," Norita Smith said.
"If you look all across everywhere, you see that the price of everything, taxes, whatever is all going up, like the Social Security raise we're going to get, somebody's going to end up getting some of our money," Henry Keller said.
The Lackawanna County commissioners hope to vote on a finalized budget in a few weeks.
The county is currently undertaking a property reassessment.
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