Debbie Wachter Morris
New Castle News
NEW CASTLE —
Lawrence County government and state agencies may have to do with less next year.
With ghost trails of last year’s holiday furloughs behind them, county department heads now are being told to slash their budgets by 10 percent next year in order to help balance the county’s 2011 budget.
That edict was conveyed to them by the commissioners and county administrator James Gagliano as they prepare to sit down for budget discussions.
Gagliano said yesterday that the department directors have until Sept. 10 to submit their 2011 budget requests.
“Last year we flatlined them,” Commissioner chairman Steve Craig commented. “This year they were told to make cuts. If they’re not willing to do it, we’ll have to.”
Employees last year were also issued furlough days when the courthouse was closed for the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those matters are in arbitration after the courthouse labor unions filed grievances. An arbitration hearing was conducted Monday at the courthouse.
Budget discussions arose yesterday when Roy Magee, caretaker of a Perry Township cemetery, requested the county do its part and help pay for insetting the grave markers of military veterans.
But Craig advised Magee there are no promises because there is no money.
“This is the new normal,” Craig said. “There is not enough money for what we need to do and what we should be doing.”
In light of a still-declining economy, state budget cutbacks directly affect programs that counties are mandated to carry out.
Craig said the commissioners will look at the funds again to see if there is more to designate for markers. But whatever the county gives the Veterans Affairs office will have to come from somewhere else in the budget.
“We can only spend what we have and we can’t do deficit funding,” he said.
Craig pointed out that the state transportation budget has been cut by 24 percent over the next 10 years.
The state Transportation Commission on Aug. 12 approved an update to its 12-year transportation plan that reflects an expected 24-percent funding cut for improvements for highways, bridges, transit, aviation and rail freight.
Comments by PennDOT Secretary Allen D. Biehler, who also is commission chairman, echo Craig’s sentiments.
“Pennsylvania is falling far short of making the needed investments just to keep our system in a state of good repair,” Biehler said in the release. “The reductions outlined in the new 12-year program are a dramatic example of where we are headed.”
The latest update to the program was prompted by uncertainty about future federal funds, the effects of inflation and the lack of additional resources, Biehler noted.
Congress has yet to enact a new six-year authorization bill to pay for transportation in Pennsylvania and across the nation. The 12-year program update assumes a growth in federal funds of 1 percent in 2011 and 2012 and 4 percent in 2013-14.
Further cuts may be needed depending on funding levels in the new reauthorization bill.
The federal government also rejected Pennsylvania’s request to toll Interstate 80, leaving a hole of about $500 million in the state’s transportation budget.
Highway and bridge projects in the first four years of the 12-year program, which begins Oct. 1, total $10.2 billion, compared to $12.2 billion in the 2009 program.
PennDOT has posted lists of projects deferred because of funding reductions at www.FundPaTransportationNow.com.
