Published: May 25, 2009 10:54 pm      

Commissioners urge rejection of budget

EBENSBURG — Cambria County commissioners are joining other county officials across Pennsylvania urging the state House to reject a Senate-approved budget that makes deep cuts – passing along costs of state-mandated services to the counties.

Unless there are changes, the commissioners warned that they would have to look at options from cutting services to increasing property taxes.

In early May, the Senate – voting along party lines in the Republican-controlled chamber – passed a $27.3 million spending plan for 2009-10 that would reduce spending by $1 billion from this year’s approved budget.

It also is less than Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed $29 billion budget plan unveiled in February.

President Commissioner P.J. Stevens and Commissioner Milan Gjurich, both Democrats, charged that senators voting for the budget legislation “wanted to look fiscally responsible” while, in reality, shifting the burden to the local taxpayers.

Gjurich said, “It’s only a facade. It makes the state look good while passing it (costs) on.”

Stevens said, “If the state requires us to provide services, they should pay for it.”

Commissioner Bill Harris, the lone Republican on the board, voiced no objections to the resolution that urges the General Assembly “to adopt a responsible budget that maintains funding for core government services,” but did not take part in the discussion.

The Senate-approved budget includes no increase for nursing home reimbursements, cuts mental-health funding, decreases child welfare reimbursement and curbs allocations for juvenile detention, it was noted.

Last week, Somerset County Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes aired similar concerns about the impact the cuts will have on counties in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee.

“When costs are passed down to counties, property taxpayers – our local revenue base – suffer the consequences,” she said.

Stevens and Gjurich, as they have previously, called for statewide tax reform to ease the burden on local property taxpayers.

The state budget – when it’s passed – comes in the middle of the county’s fiscal year, months after the county adopted its budget, Stevens said.

Discussions already are on-going with department heads on how to deal “with worst-case scenarios. We have to be prepared.  We can’t allow them to dig a hole we can’t get out of,” he said.

Human service programs – largely funded by the state – provide essential services to the people, he said.

Stevens said that the options are few – “layoffs, or cuts in services, or raising taxes, and in this day and age, that is unacceptable.”