County leaders don’t expect tax increase in 2018 budget

Dec. 14--Property owners in Crawford County shouldn't expect to see an increase in the county's real estate tax for 2018, according to county commissioners.

Following their meeting Wednesday, commissioners said they don't anticipate an increase county taxes when the budget 2018 comes up for a final vote at their Dec. 27 meeting.

On Nov. 29, commissioners gave unanimous preliminary approval to a balanced budget of $70.2 million for 2018 that keeps the county's real estate tax rate at 19.1 mills. County property taxes on a home assessed at $25,000 would remain at $477.50 for 2018.

Some minor changes still are possible before final passage, but nothing that will change the totals, according to commissioners.

"Staff has done a good job of trimming the fat," Commissioner John Amato said of the pending budget.

"It's been a difficult task to try to trim an already lean budget," Commissioner Chris Soff said.

Commissioner Chairman Francis Weiderspahn Jr. was absent from Wednesday's meeting due to illness.

The preliminary budget lists an $888,651 payment for debt service on loan payments toward the judicial center project, but commissioners said the county has money available in the general fund to service that debt without increasing taxes.

Two years ago, commissioners approved a 2016 budget with a 0.25-mill dedicated tax hike toward interest costs on the judicial center which put the county property tax millage at the current 19.1 mills.

The county borrowed $17 million for the judicial center project -- $10 million in 2016 and another $7 million in 2017 -- under 25-year loans from ERIEBANK. The interest rate for the first five years is 2.22 percent with a variable rate after that. The highest the variable rate can ever be is 3.1 percent.

The county has estimated it needs up to a total of 0.9 mills to cover the cost of borrowing and construction for the judicial center project. The 0.25-mill increase is 2016 is part of the 0.9-mill total estimate.

Commissioners Soff and Amato said that for the foreseeable future they don't anticipate raising county real estate taxes to cover the cost of the project, but instead the county will make the debt payment out of the general fund. They don't know how long that may last, though.

"There will come a point, if the revenue side of things doesn't change drastically and increase, and if we can't find a way across the county to get expenses down, that pulling that money out of the general fund will end," Soff said.

"We have money in the general fund, it's taxpayers' money," Amato said. "Our business isn't to invest taxpayers' money but to use what they've given us. If the money is there, then we shouldn't go back to the taxpayers again and say, 'We need more of your money' because we have a pool (of funds)."

The preliminary 2018 county budget is available on Crawford County's website, crawfordcountypa.net.

It also is available in Meadville at the commissioners' office at the Crawford County Courthouse, 903 Diamond Park Square; at the Meadville Public Library, 848 N. Main St.; and in Titusville at Benson Memorial Library, 213 N. Franklin St.

Keith Gushard can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.

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