Commissioners Finalize 2020 Centre County Budget with No Tax Increase

For the 10th consecutive year, Centre County’s budget will have no real estate tax increase.

The general millage rate will remain at 7.84 mills on the assessed real estate value. In general terms, for each $100 of assessed taxable property, the land owner must pay 78 cents in taxes.

The county Board of Commissioners approved the rate on Tuesday.

The 2020 county budget was also approved in the amount of $84,333,038, of which $82,123,801 is for the operating budget and $2,209,237 is for capital reserve.

“I just want to thank staff for working on this all the way back in August,” said Commissioner Mark Higgins. “And for doing a wonderful job in addition to handling the multiple crises that have affected the county seemingly every week.”

The budget will be open for a 45-day period starting in January for the newly-elected officials to review the document, said county Administrator Margaret Gray.

The budget was first discussed at the Nov. 19 commissioners meeting and was available to view on the county’s website during a 20-day public review period.

Capital projects in the works for the upcoming year include a prison solar array, courthouse renovations, building camera upgrades, facility upgrades and repairs and top-coating of the Willowbank Building parking lot.

Human services and corrections services take the largest slice out of the budget.

“Between human services and corrections, that is almost half of our expenditures — $29 million in human services and almost $14 million in corrections. The next highest is administrative and judicial that make up about 26 percent of the expenditures,” said county Director of Financial Management Tom Martin.

The total operating budget is $31,228 less than the proposed amount in November. Revenues were increase by about $100,000 because of an increase in real estate tax projections, said Martin. The changes in expenditures have to do with personnel changes and health care changes since Nov. 19.

“We had discussed this weeks ago prior to this, so this is the culmination of that, and we have the opportunity in January to reopen it, so I think there will be a lot more dialogue then,” said Commissioner Michael Pipe. He said the county is required to pass the budget by the end of the year.

“Let’s roll,” said Commissioner Steven Dershem as the board agreed to vote on the budget.

The budget is available for viewing on the county’s website, centrecountypa.gov.