Fiscal Affairs Director Steve Barron introduced Executive Lamont McClure, for his brief budget address. He said the budget was prepared under three guiding principles: (1) keep taxes stable; (2) fully fund open space initiatives; and (3) keep Gracedale county-owned and operated.
In his address, McClure stated that taxes will remain stable in his 2024 budget (no tax hike). The 10.8 mill tax rate means that a home assessed at $75,000 will receive a tax bill next year for $810. Three years ago, that same home would have seen a $885 tax bill. The budget is also balanced, which is a requirement of the Home Rule Charter.
The spending plan invests $3 million in open space, which puts him at an $18 million investment in open space since becoming Executive. This is in accordance with a 2002 referendum overwhelmingly embraced by the voters to preserve farmland, protect environmentally sensitive land and maintain municipal parks. McClure hopes this investment will "slow warehouse growth." He added that he wants to "limit new development, not give it tax breaks ... ."
The budget fully funds health carte benefits for county employees even though those costs have increased dramatically with the pandemic. He dipped into the fund balance to fund health care. In addition, the out-of-pocket expenses of county employees will increase. He indicated he had hoped to reduce taxes, but that was impossible because County Council refused to fund his proposed employee health center, which he claims "would have saved significantly on health care costs."
As far as Gracedale is concerned, a nursing home has never been considered a core county function. But McClure refers to it as a "moral obligation, and boy, have we learned the meaning of moral obligation." But Gracedale is fully funded with no need for a county contribution in 2024.
The budget calls for funding for aging infrastructure, including the parking deck and jail.
Now that the budget has been proposed by the Executive, it is up to County Council. There are usually five hearings, followed by possible amendments. They must act by December 16 or McClure's budget is automatically adopted.
Council can reject the budget. But under our Home Rule Charter, that also means McClure's budget will be automatically adopted.
What Council can do is amend the budget although they are prohibited from interfering with the Executive's revenue projections. If they want to fund something, they will need to cut somewhere else.
7 comments:
Thank you Lamont! Great job! And shame on the County Council for not supporting your initiative to save money with Integrity! Vote them out at their next election!!
This is a fucking joke. We are one of the richest counties in the state yet he can't give the employees a raise. Comparative analysis has shown we are under paid. We were told that if we agreed to the low raises they offered that they wouldn't increase our health care. Now it's shown as a "not directly increasing our rates" on WFMZ but rather the deductibles. It's the same thing.
People are leaving all over the building. I'm looking for other employment. We always took less pay for the added benefits. Everyone always said government employees are well taken care of.
We aren't well taken care of anymore. Over the years they took everything away. We get shit pay and now shit benefits. "Welcome to the real world" some might say but we made our choice. We were offered and chose a yearly step based raise and cost of living every year until we reached our max step then just for cost of living. We chose decent health benefits for less money than private sector jobs.
What we got was frozen steps and higher health care costs, change in how they interpret the retirement Healthcare so anyone retiring under their age NEVER gets the promised compensation.
Again, less wages for good benefits. That was our real world choice. We were lied to again. I hope any union still in arbitration wins a buttload of money.
Thank God we don't have increased expenses like everyone else.
And just FYI as a tax payer i pay my own wages and would have to pay higher taxes too.
A democrat that acts fiscally responsible. McClure gets the majority of the electorate.
McClure, the wannabe democrat mob boss of Northampton County id doing his usual schtick. He also has some of his crew already praising him on here, besides you. With him he is always the savior of the people, and it is always someone else's fault. His usual target is county council. He is an autocrat, so his disdain of oversight is understandable. He and his cronies are predictable. He blames others for his own actions all the while denying the fact that wages are a problem. His 'health Center' as an alternative to paying living wages is very robber Barron of him. He has millions in reserve but wants to sit on it to ensure his legacy elections.
He should be called out on it, but he has co-opted the union bosses and uses his officers to attack and demean any who disagree with him. Wait until next year when his paid for rubber stamps taker office. Apparently, Kraft has already claimed he will make sure things run the way McClure wants. We sure need professional journalists.
He is going to keep Gracedale running? What's he going to pay them with, his empty promises. The guy is two faced.
Poor, poor little lord Lamont. Everyone is against him. He has the best ideas to save the world and his lessers stop him because They hate him. Poor, poor boy, Thank God he has his well-paid Greek chorus to applaud and cheer his every utterance. Shame on the elected county legislators who even combined, do not have the foresight and ability of lord Lamont. It is not easy being a giant among pigmies. President trump has the same problem.
Watched the video. I have a1question. McClure made a big deal on how council forced him to raise deductibles and put more money into health coverage for the staff. Yet, even if the center had passed it would be many months before it would be up and functioning and even then, until staff started to possibly use it. SO, he and Slick Stevie had to know that before his hissy speech. So why put th increase in now? Sounds like regardless of the vote he would have to have put the money in. He should have clarified the increased cost if that is the case. Or is it another way to fatten up a line item for disposable cash for other things.
Hopefully county council is not intimidated by his attacks and asks tough questions before letting this budget slide.
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