Bucks County Commissioners unanimously approved a 2019 operating budget without raising taxes
By Tom Waring
The Times
The Bucks County Commissioners unanimously approved a 2019 operating budget of $432.6 million without raising taxes.
The final budget represents a 2.1 percent increase over the 2018 budget of $423.9 million.
Director of Finance and Administration David Boscola said the budget was balanced through identifying additional revenue, projecting reduced expenditures for health care and personnel, and using $1.3 million from the county’s $35.6 million general fund balance.
Critical to meeting the budget for the coming year will be savings gleaned from closely monitoring whether to fill non-essential positions as they become vacant, Chief Operating Officer Brian Hessenthaler said.
Hessenthaler called it the “most difficult” budget in his 15 years with the county.
“And the hard work is ahead of us,” he said. “It’s going to be painful to make this work, but we can all make it work.”
A similar financial situation faced the county in 2012, when a selective hiring program also was implemented. Unlike that year, the 2019 adjustments are being made without a tax increase.
As a result of leaving many vacancies unfilled, the county workforce dropped from 2,634 full-time employees to roughly 2,400 by the end of 2012, and to 2,350 by mid-2013. The county currently has 2,389 full-time employees.
“These budgets aren’t easy. They get more challenging and complex each year,” Commissioners Chairman Robert G. Loughery said at the board’s year-end meeting at the Bucks County Visitor Center in Bensalem. “But we have a budget here before us today that I think covers much of the services that are needed in the county.”
Despite the expected winnowing down of the workforce, Loughery said the county “will continue to provide those services at the top level and continue to do the right things for the residents of Bucks County.”
Loughery thanked Boscola, Hessenthaler, row officers, department heads and their staffs for cooperating, working hard and collectively tightening their belts.
Bucks County continues to hold a AAA bond rating from Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s. This rating benefits taxpayers through lower borrowing costs on current and future bond issues.
To view the 2019 operating budget, visit BucksCounty.org and click on the budget link on the home page. ••
