York County Administrator James McReynolds gave the York Board of Supervisors a brief presentation at their Tuesday meeting on some preliminary issues they’ll face in setting a budget for fiscal year 2014, which runs from July 1, 2013, to June 30, 2014.
The conversation centered on preliminary expenditure and revenue numbers provided by county officials. Not counting increases in education costs and employee compensation, officials estimate increased costs to the tune of $1.7 to $2 million. These costs would be from health insurance coverage for county workers—including the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare—the Capital Improvement Plan and other expenses including increased animal control costs in the wake of York County having to join with other localities to build a new animal shelter.
According to estimates from county officials, the cost of implementing the healthcare law could be as high as $500,000, though nothing is certain. The board and county officials called for informational workshops to help disseminate information about the impact of the law, which is still unclear to many localities. Part of the law is scheduled to go in effect in January.
“We need to get a primer on what we’re looking at with Obamacare,” said Chairman Thomas Shepperd. “Somewhere down the road, we’re going to have more and more of these fees coming in, and as we’re getting, for lack of a better term, an unfunded mandate from the federal government, we’re going to have to increase taxes to fill this in.”
On the revenue side, county officials projected a minimal increase in revenue from property tax growth from construction in addition to slight increases in revenue from personal property tax, business/professional/occupational license taxes and meal and lodging taxes. Revenue from sales tax is projected to remain level as are other revenues. According to county officials, there is potentially $1 to $1.4 million in revenue growth for the new budget.
County officials also gave a brief rundown of items the board discussed at an August 7 work session. Among the items is a change in the due date of real estate taxes that would push the June due date from the 5 to the 25. They also discussed tiered late payment penalties for late payment of personal property and real estate taxes. Right now, the county charges a penalty of $10 or 10 percent of the bill—whichever is greater—if taxes are paid even a day late. The new plan would lower the rate to two percent through the end of the month the taxes were due, with the current penalty imposed at the start of the next month. The supervisors also discussed eliminating the vehicle registration fee and increasing personal property tax to offset the revenue that would be lost.
These items will likely be considered for implementation early next year. The Board of Supervisors will begin the budget process at their January meeting, though the brunt of the work will come in the following months. A proposed budget cycle from McReynolds is as follows:
-A budget forum in January where members of the public could voice their concerns
-A February work session with the York County School Board
-Work sessions for the supervisors that would run from February through April
-A proposed budget would be ready for presentation by March
-A public hearing in April where members of the community could discuss the proposed budget
-The new budget would be adopted on May 7
The May 7 budget adoption date is later than it has been in previous years. The supervisors had expressed a desire in the past to extend the final date so as to give them enough time to set the budget while taking into account how much money the state will provide the York County School Board. The amount of funds allocated to the school board was a source of trouble in the past, something supervisors would like to avoid. They also want to make sure they have an idea of how much money they will receive from the state. In years past, the supervisors have sometimes been left to try to come up with a budget without finding out how much they would receive from the state until late in the process.
The supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday (Supervisor George Hrichak was absent) to pass a resolution that would allocate $144,948 to purchase vacuum sewer valves for the Queens Lake Sewer Project. The funds will come from the Capital Improvement Program budget.
