Berks County commissioners unanimously passed a 2021 county budget that holds the line on taxes.
Despite the financial strain of the COVID pandemic, the nearly $577 million plan manages to avoid a property tax increase and program cuts.
Budget chief Robert Patrizio outlined the spending plan during the commissioners’ weekly board meeting Thursday.
He said the budget specifically meets the directive to present a budget without a tax increase while balancing continued support for services and financial stability.
“We do not recommend a tax increase,” he said.
The property tax rate will remain at 7.657 mills, meaning the owner of a property assessed at $100,000 will continue to pay $766. The last time the county raised taxes was in 2018 to help cover recurring operating expenses.
The budget represents a $10 million increase from the almost $567 million 2021 plan.
It includes a $6.8 million deficit that will be covered with reserve funds. But Patrizio said there will be no reduction in services as a result of the deficit.
“We continue to see that of this total deficit of all funds the vast majority is related to one-time capital expenditures, and because of that we recommend that we use our reserve funds rather than incurring new debt to fund those improvements,” he said. “As long as we continue to have the financial strength that we have we will continue to recommend that policy.”
Patrizio said the plan limits the growth of new discretionary spending, limits the number of new county workers, does not add new debt, prioritizes infrastructure and technology upgrades, and funds new facility needs with reserves.
He added that the county will continue to maintain certain commitments.
Those include $3.7 million for the county park system, $3.6 million for the library system, $3.25 million for Reading Area Community College and $1.4 million for the Council on Chemical Abuse.
Patrizio pointed out that the county will spend most of its money on public safety and the court system. The county spends nearly $61 million on public safety and $49 million on the court system, a combined total that represents more than 60% of all county department spending.
He noted that the proposed budget unveiled last month garnered no comments during the formal review period and that the changes made to the spending plan since then were insignificant.
While Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt joined his colleagues in voting to adopt the budget, he noted his objection to the $500,000 allocation to the Greater Reading Chamber Alliance.
He said this past spring he requested the organization provide an explanation of how the county’s contribution was impacting economic development but has yet to receive any substantial information.
He pointed out that the county has taken steps this year to make economic development a high priority by hiring three staff members to lead those efforts, making it more difficult for him to justify the contribution to the alliance.
“I have a feeling that we’re doing some duplication or redundancy of services or maybe some services are not being done at all,” he said. “So, what we did was we shifted expenses that were normally done by that partnership over to the county but we continue to excessively fund the chamber.”
Barnhardt said despite his objection to that specific allocation he would still support the spending plan. But he urged his colleagues to hit the pause button on the contribution moving forward.
Shortly after the passage of the budget, Chairman Christian Leinbach shared with the board that he had sent an email to Greater Reading Chamber Alliance President Jim Gerlach asking that he present the commissioners in the coming months with a report on how the 2021 contribution was spent.
He said he expects to hear back soon.
Leinbach also noted that, for the first time ever, the board required the organization to enter into a contract with the county for 2022 that outlines specifically the work that they are supposed to be doing for the funds that they have been provided.
“I believe we have a good agreement in place and let’s see what the report has to say early in 2022,” he said. “But they definitely owe us a definitive and public report on their activity.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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