The York County Board of Supervisors met at a retreat last weekend where they began to discuss the long process of setting York County’s budget in the face of increased employee healthcare and compensation costs for the next fiscal year, which runs from July 1 until June 30, 2014.
Preliminary numbers indicate $3.8 million in new expenses, stemming from county and school division employee raises that total $2 million, $1.2 million in increased healthcare costs and $600,000 of other expenses, including capital improvement expenses, according to a Powerpoint that was shown at the retreat.
The $3.8 million figure is a rough approximation of the county’s increased expenses, as it does not take into account funding for education and other money from the state nor any potential reduced spending from the county.
The county will also receive $1.675 million in new revenue from taxes and fees, though this figure does not take into account money from the state. The $1.675 million increase in revenue is not from a tax increase but rather money that will come to the county from rates already on the books.
Still, this leaves the county with a preliminary deficit figure of approximately $2.13 million, which could force the supervisors into raising taxes unless adequate cuts can be made to the budget.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, a public forum was held where York County citizens could sound off on their opinions about the state of the county’s budget. The forum attracted three people, whose different opinions distilled the questions at the center of the budgeting process—how can York County best allocate its resources, and will it be necessary to raise taxes on residents to meet that end?
One speaker was Frank Grandy, who is retired and relies on a fixed income.
“Reduce costs,” Grandy said. “Bring in a cost expert. I just don’t think it’s right to increase taxes on people like me who can ill afford it.”
Jim Morgan, who spoke immediately after Grandy, cited the lack of pay raises over the last four years for county employees and teachers.
“A teacher that has been around four years was making the same amount of money as a brand new teacher,” Morgan said. “I don’t want our employees to move elsewhere because they’re not making enough money.”
York County must also contend with a projected $2.9 million budget shortfall in the school system. You can read more about that here.
By increasing the real-estate tax rate 1 cent, the county can generate an additional $875,000. County residents are currently taxes .7415 cents per $100 of assessed value on their property. According to the Powerpoint, an increase of 3.4 cents would provide the schools with $2,225,000 of additional funding while a 4.4 cent increase would provide $3,100,000.
The Powerpoint included information about how much York County must pay in employer contributions to provide its employees health insurance. The York County numbers were typically average or above average—for example, a single employee falls within a range of $326 to $515, while York County must pay $472. For a family, the range is $842 to $1,179, while York County pays $966.
