For the second year in a row, a property tax increase doesn’t
appear to be in McKean County’s future, County Administrator Dick
Casey said Tuesday.

As department heads continue to forward their budgetary needs to
Casey and Finance Director Dustin Laurie, Casey said the county’s
2006 spending plan will be impacted by increases in salaries,
health insurance and fuel costs, similar to other
municipalities.

Those hikes, according to Casey, will be offset by the county’s
attempt to “cut back” in such areas as curtailing unnecessary
travel and by forming a health insurance consortium with other
counties, among other steps.

“At this point, we are trying to get an accurate estimate on
what the departmental revenues and expenditures will be,” Casey
said, adding some departments have still not turned in their
individual budget plans. “We are now in the process of just trying
to put the numbers together and get a good first look at them.

“We will balance that against what we believe the cost of living
increases for salaries will be, along with any increases in
benefits and health insurance.”

The more than $31 million 2005 budget also held the line on
taxes.

This year, county officials will have to account for an increase
in the number of hires in the government, among other matters.

According to Casey, the county will likely hold a public
briefing on the proposed budget next month before displaying it at
the courthouse for 20 days. The budget will then be adopted in
December.

In regards to increased costs for health insurance, Casey said
the spike will be “somewhat offset by the change in program
structure for employee contributions.”

For example, Casey said employees under the “employee only”
option paid nothing into the program, but now pay 8 percent of the
total health and prescription drug premium cost. Conversely, those
in the family plan experienced a decrease in the contribution
rate.

“We had to do those types of things to make it more equitable,”
Casey said. “We have also done other things, like adjusting the
co-payment and adding a mail order prescription drug option in an
attempt to keep the cost from going up more.”

Casey also said the county has entered into an insurance
purchasing cooperative “in an attempt to gain some benefits of a
self-funded program.”

The Northern Counties Health Insurance Purchasing Cooperative –
which became effective earlier this month – boasts McKean,
Clearfield and Clinton counties as its founding members, with the
hopes of adding more in the future.

“Instead of giving all our money to the insurance company, we
can keep that for ourselves,” Casey said.

Elsewhere, Casey said like estimating insurance increases,
budgeting fuel costs is a prickly issue because of the constant
changes in rates.

“We are attempting to find ways to conserve just like any
private citizen would,” Casey said. “Some things like fuel costs
are hard to forecast because there is an unknown element there
until the bill actually hits your desk.”

Meanwhile, Casey said the county has also looked to curtail
travel, take advantage of teleconferencing and consolidate trips to
ease the fuel crunch.

Also, with the sale of the landfill to Rustick LLC, Casey said
the proceeds will be put into an interest bearing account set up by
the county to be used for capital improvements.

“In essence, we won’t use the proceeds to pay county bills,”
Casey said. “We still want to force ourselves to continue to be
responsible and to balance the budget in such a way that we don’t
depend on sources of revenue we don’t normally have.”

However, Casey said, there will be some tipping fees coming to
the county as a result of the sale, and “we’ll try to forecast what
those might be as well.”

“We are trying to save money any place we can,” Casey said. “We
are trying to find places we can cut back, not by cutting
employees, but making smarter decisions on how we spend the
money.”