The Lancaster County commissioners on Wednesday passed the county’s 2025 budget, which provides for $186.2 million in general fund spending and keeps the county property tax rates at 2.911 mills, unchanged for 12 consecutive years.
The vote was 2-1, with Commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino voting in favor, and Commissioner Alice Yoder voting against.
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The budget uses $3.3 million in one-time American Rescue Plan Act funds and projects drawing $5.4 million from reserves to achieve balance. It also anticipates drawing some money from the county’s capital budget.
Keeping expenses down is a four-month hiring freeze, from January through April, which the county Salary Board approved Monday. It’s projected to save $1.6 million, LNP reported.
The Salary Board also approved 2025 salaries, which provide for 2% to 3.5% raises for non-union county employees depending on their job performance. The board is made up of the three commissioners and county Controller Lisa Colon. Commissioner Yoder voted against the salary freeze.
Pay and benefits account for a majority of general fund spending: $107.8 million, or 58%, up $7 million over 2024.
For more information
The county’s 2025 budget, the presentation made on Dec. 3 by Budget Services Director Paul Landes and other materials are available on the county’s Budget & Financial Information web page.
Parsons and D’Agostino have characterized the budget as prudent. The projected drawdown of reserves will still leave them at historically high levels and well above the minimum levels set in county policy. Meanwhile, keeping tax rates unchanged protects taxpayers. The budget gives the county a year of breathing room, D’Agostino said, during which the commissioners and department leaders can explore ways to cut costs and achieve efficiencies before the next budget is due for 2026.
Yoder, conversely, has argued that the county is taking an unsustainable “Band Aid approach.” She has urged her colleagues to game out potential spending scenarios by implementing a formal multi-year strategic planning process, and has complained that the budget is trimming the county’s annual grants to several third parties, including the Library System of Lancaster County, without giving them enough lead time to adjust.
In comments before Wednesday’s vote, the three commissioners reiterated their positions in a series of somewhat testy exchanges. Parsons and D’Agostino disputed the notion that the county doesn’t engage in long-term budget planning: It does, they said, but its formal budgets are year-by-year, because that’s what state law requires.
Parsons suggested that Yoder was contradicting herself by objecting to the use of reserves while also calling for a further draw on reserves to restore full funding for the county’s third-party grants. Yoder said she had objected to the budget’s use of reserves because they’re being used to cover predictable cost drivers, such as agreed salary increases. She also questioned how much savings the county can expect to achieve through its review next year, given how efficient county operations are already.
The adopted budget reflects one change made since the county’s budget meeting last week, Budget Services Director Paul Landers said. This week, the county learned that it is receiving an additional $1.3 million in reimbursement from the Pennsylvania Counties Health Insurance Purchasing Cooperative, or PCHIP, so the payroll and “other expenses” line items have been adjusted accordingly. The change is “net neutral,” D’Agostino said.
Besides the general fund, the budget provides for about $130 million in spending by the county’s five “funded agencies”: Behavioral Health/Developmental Services, Children & Youth, Domestic Relation, Drug & Alcohol and the Office of Aging.
Almost all of their funding comes from state and federal grants. The county is required to contribute a certain amount in matching funding, which for 2025 totals a little over $16 million.
