Somerset County Commissioners approve proposed budget with tax increase

SOMERSET ― Somerset County Commissioners approved a tentative amended 2024 budget Tuesday that will raise property taxes by 1.75 mills.

The approved 2024 budget by the previous set of commissioners in December, was for $60.76 million. It was reopened by the new commissioners and set at $61.33 million, with a total difference of $573,728.

The budget includes an increased tax levy from 13.36 mills to 15.11 mills – $50.28 a year per assessed value. The increase of 1.75 mills will generate $2.7 million, commissioners said.

The amended budget will be available for public inspection and public notice will be advertised for possible adoption at the commissioners' Feb. 13 meeting.

More: Somerset County Commissioners adopt 2024 budget with 'minor changes'

Why the change?

Commissioner Irvin Kimmel Jr. said the budget has a $1.4 million shortfall. He said he felt commissioners needed additional funds ready for safety concerns that come up as well as for work needed to comply with ADA requirements.

Kimmel said these unforeseen costs, such as when boilers broke down, the concrete on the underside of the county office building overhang fell over the weekend and damage to cement in the sidewalks deteriorating from the salt used to melt ice over the years, can be unexpected.

"It sucks," he said. "I can justify it because I know we're doing the right thing."

Chairman Brian Fochtman said the last tax increase was in 2014.

"To run it now on a 2014 budget is borderline impossible," he said. "We feel like the previous administration kicked the can down the road. Irv and I wanted to deal with this now."

Fochtman said after the meeting that when the commissioners looked at the 2024 budget, they felt "the budget was as tight as it could possibly be."

Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes cast the only no vote on the amended budget proposal. She said she voted Jan. 16 to reopen the budget because the majority of the board was new.

Tokar-Ickes said the year-end statements show that the county's budgeted reserve funds of $3.2 million remained untapped and would need to be used and the approved budget carefully managed. She said she expected that a tax increase would be inevitable in 2025.

"By then the labor contracts would be in place and a comprehensive salary classification study to rationally award pay increases across the organization would be completed," Tokar-Ickes said.

She said she's not afraid to raise taxes when they absolutely have to be increased and officials can explain what the additional money would be used for, but Tokar-Ickes "does not think the new proposed spending plan is in the county's best interest and it is certainly unprecedented."

More: Salary raises tabled; board procedures discussed by county commissioners

Fochtman said after the meeting that he didn't want to keep digging into reserve funds.

"They'll go dry. We'd be in the same situation next year," he said. "The monster was only going to continue to grow. The 1.75 mill increase is the best solution. I think we're going to be safe there. And that's why we chose that one."

Fochtman said commissioners are in negotiations with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the biggest union for county employees. The new contract could affect 174 employees if all of the vacancies are filled. The previous contract expired in December. They've been negotiating continuously since early last year, Tokar-Ickes said.

"We don't know how much that'll affect us," Fochtman said.

Public input

Members of the audience spoke during the public comment at the beginning of the board meeting.

Dian Troutman said she attended all the candidate debates before the election and the commissioners said raising taxes would be a last resort.

"It looks like it's the first resort," she said. "The previous commissioners would have been crucified by you if they'd raised taxes. They were going to hold off the tax increases until next year. Please don't raise the taxes."

Christine Lambertson said seniors' Social Security checks usually are $1,000 a month.

"What I'm interested in is helping this county," she said. "I pledged after the election to help the seniors – $40 is a lot to seniors who get $1,000 a month."

George Critchfield said raising taxes was the last thing the new commissioners wanted to do but they need more income in the budget.

"For 16 cents a day, I'll give up money so the county employees can have a livable wage," he said.

Lester Younkin said he knew last May that raising taxes was inevitable. He criticized the commissioners for spending money on lobbyists to finish the Route 219 project in Washington, D.C., Younkin said he knows it won't happen by their deadline. He said the commissioners spent $17,000 last year to fight him on his right-to-know requests, which he says he won.

Younkin said he continues to get emails from county employees, one of whom said their take-home pay every two weeks is $453. He responded to Lambertson's concern about seniors not being able to afford the raise in taxes, saying if that is too much for the senior citizens to handle, then they need to blame themselves for not managing their money or retirement investments wisely.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Commissioners amend 2024 budget to include funds for safety concerns