Current-year real estate tax the county plans to collect
The short version
Total spending goes from $546.8M (2026 budget as amended) to $566.9M in 2027, up $20.1M or 4%. The headline number hides a bigger story: the 2026 budget was held down by skipping costs, and 2027 puts them back.
The tax increase pays for more than new spending
Taxes rise $44.6M while total spending rises only $20.1M. The rest replaces reserves: the county plans to draw $19.2M less from fund balance, and the General Fund sends $20.5M more to other funds.
2026 was artificially low
The 2026 budget carried almost no pension contribution ($1.3M vs $8.2M actually paid in 2025) and $0 for the Gracedale subsidy, though $3.9M is projected to go out anyway. 2027 budgets $12.2M for pensions and $12.0M for Gracedale.
Overtime is budgeted below what's actually spent
Countywide overtime is budgeted at $6.2M but ran $8.3M in 2025 and is projected at $8.9M in 2026. The jail alone budgets $2.0M against $3.8M actual. That's either a real overrun waiting to happen or a staffing problem being paid at time-and-a-half.
Three-quarters of non-payroll spending is now in "pooled" lines
$302.5M of the $400.6M non-payroll budget is in catch-all pooled lines, so the budget no longer says what most of that money buys. 2025 actuals still show the detail; the 2027 budget doesn't.
$7.0M in grant pools with no named recipient
"Future Grants" lines across hotel tax, gaming, Grow NORCO, Brownfields and Open Space funds total $7.0M. Most of this is restricted money, not property tax, but it's still spending without a named purpose.
Some lines go down
The courthouse parking deck drops from $23.7M to $19.2M (bond-funded), the P25 radio expansion's $3.5M ends, and COVID grant spending ($3.1M) winds down.
Revenue and spending by type
All funds. "2026 budget" is the amended figure printed in the 2027 document; the adopted 2026 total was $535.0M.
My take
I started this expecting to find a budget full of waste. What I found is more complicated, and I think more useful: the biggest savings aren't always where people assume they are.
The tax increase isn't mostly new spending
Property tax collections go up about $44.5M, but total spending only goes up about $20.1M. The rest covers costs the 2026 budget simply left out. In my view the 2026 budget was held down artificially, and taxpayers are now paying for that.
2026 budgeted $1.3M for pensions after the county paid $8.2M in 2025; 2027 budgets $12.2M. 2026 budgeted $0 for the Gracedale subsidy while $3.9M is projected to go out anyway; 2027 budgets $12.0M. Draws on reserves fall by $19.2M.
That doesn't make the increase acceptable. It means the fair question isn't just "why is spending up?" but "why wasn't this planned for, and what's being done so it doesn't happen again?"
The parking garage: question the price, not the need
I don't think a new garage is a luxury. The existing deck dates to 1975, and the county has documented falling concrete and repeated repairs. Council already rejected a larger version with an office building. The bonds are issued, so cancelling now wouldn't stop the debt payments.
Reported cost: about $22M for roughly 350 spaces, about 50 more than today, likely without the separate surface lot. Sources: WFMZ, WFMZ. The 2027 budget carries $19.2M for the deck.
Where I'd push is cost. That works out to roughly $63,000 per space by my math. I'd like to see how that compares to other recent public garages in the region, and whether losing the surface lot means the county ends up with barely more total parking than it has now.
Overstaffed? In the 24/7 operations, the numbers say the opposite
I expected to find too many people on the payroll. In the jail, Gracedale, 911 and juvenile detention, overtime runs well above budget year after year. In my experience running operations, that pattern means too few people on the floor, paid at time-and-a-half to cover the gap.
Countywide overtime: budgeted $6.2M, actual $8.3M in 2025, projected $8.9M in 2026. The jail budgets $2.0M against $3.8M actual.
The staffing problem I do see is money raised for positions that sit empty.
2026 salaries were budgeted at $99.9M; the county projects actual spending of $96.4M, a gap of about $3.5M.
The budget documents don't list headcount, so I can't say which departments are overstaffed. The county should publish authorized versus filled positions by department so residents can judge for themselves.
Where I think the real savings are
Ranked by how much each could actually lower property taxes:
- Gracedale. The county subsidy jumps to $12.0M, the home carries a $28.8M professional-services line, and overtime runs about $2.6M. Whether the county should keep operating a nursing home is a real debate with good arguments on both sides. Either way, the contract spending deserves a line-by-line public review.
- Funded vacancies. Roughly $3.5M a year raised for seats nobody fills. Budget for realistic staffing levels and give the difference back.
- Jail overtime. About $1.8M a year over budget. Compare the cost of hiring against the cost of overtime and show the math.
- Hidden detail. $302.5M of non-payroll spending, about 76%, now sits in "pooled" lines with no breakdown. You can't find waste in a budget that doesn't show what it buys. This one costs nothing to fix.
- Discretionary grants. Grants to outside organizations are easy to criticize, and some deserve it, but most are paid from hotel tax, gaming revenue or state and federal money. Cutting them would barely move the property tax rate.
What I'm asking council to do
Publish the line-item detail behind every pooled amount. Publish authorized versus filled positions by department. Show the overtime-versus-hiring math for the jail and Gracedale. Put Gracedale's major contracts in front of the public. And before the garage goes to bid, show residents the cost per space compared with similar projects.
None of that requires cutting a single service. It just requires showing the work.
What's driving the change
Biggest moves from the 2026 budget to the 2027 proposal, all funds. Red means more money; green means less.
Where the money comes from
Red here means more revenue. Reserves fall by $19.2M, so property tax has to cover that gap too.
Spending categories
Departments
Where General Fund transfers go
The General Fund is where property tax lands. Its transfers out to other funds more than double, from $17.3M to $37.8M.
Pension and retiree health, back on the books
Retirement and OPEB lines summed across every department. Most departments carried $0 for these in 2026.
Where to push
A budget can't prove waste on its own, but it can show where the numbers don't line up with history, where detail is missing, and where spending is discretionary. These are the items worth asking council and the administration about.
Overtime budgeted below reality
Every major 24/7 operation spent more on overtime than it budgeted. Under-budgeting makes the proposal look cheaper than it will be, and chronic overtime usually costs more than filling positions.
Ask: How many funded positions are vacant at the jail, Gracedale, 911 and the Juvenile Justice Center, and what would filling them save in overtime?
Budgeted well above what's ever been spent
Spending categories where 2027 is at least 25% and $250K above the higher of 2025 actual or 2026 projected spending. Pension-driven fringe increases are excluded since they're covered under "What's driving it." The tag shows how much of that department is paid by outside revenue such as state and federal grants.
Ask: For each line, what's the specific project or contract behind the increase, and what happens to the money if it isn't spent?
Grant pools with no named recipient
These lines hold money for grants that haven't been awarded yet. Most are funded by hotel tax, gaming revenue or federal programs rather than property tax.
Ask: What's the award process and timeline for each pool, and how much of last year's pool was actually awarded?
Grants to named outside organizations
Payments to specific nonprofits, companies, colleges and municipalities ($40K and up). New in 2027: LV Heavy Forge ($2.5M), New Bethany Ministries ($550K) and Skyline ($500K).
Ask: What does the county get for each grant, who decided the recipients, and which are state pass-through dollars versus county money?
New spending lines
Line items of $100K or more with no money in 2025 actual, 2026 projected or 2026 budget. Includes Continuum of Care, a new $1.21M program with no revenue listed against it.
The parking deck
The courthouse parking deck is the largest single project: $19.2M in 2027 from 2025 bond proceeds. The 2026 budget carried $23.7M for it, but only $5.0M is projected to be spent. Bond money is already borrowed, so the annual debt service is the cost taxpayers carry regardless.
Ask: What's the total project cost, the current schedule, and how many spaces does it add versus current demand?
Detail hidden in pooled lines
Departments with the most budget in pooled catch-all lines. The 2025 actuals show what was bought (for example, Gracedale's $26.4M "Professional Services" and $19.7M intergovernmental transfer expense); the budget only shows the pooled total.
Ask: Publish the line-item detail behind each pooled amount, the same way the 2025 actuals are shown.
Every department
Tap a department to see its spending and revenue by category, then tap a category for individual line items.
Search every line item
Try "overtime", "consult", "legal", "vehicle", "ArtsQuest" or an object code like 66050. Results are sorted by the size of the change.
Type at least two characters.
How this was built
Every figure comes from the two county documents: the 2026 Adopted Budget (146 pages) and the 2027 Proposed Budget Detail (198 pages). Text was extracted line by line, and every department's line items were checked against the department totals printed in the document. The 2027 totals reconcile exactly: $566,919,100 in spending and $546,802,385 for the 2026 budget column.
- Which 2026 number? The 2027 document's "2026 Budget" column is the amended budget ($546.8M), which includes mid-year grant additions. The adopted total was $535.0M. The department table shows both.
- 2026 projection is the county's own estimate of what will actually be spent this year.
- Outside-funded share is a department's revenue from grants, fees and the state, excluding property tax and reserve draws, as a percentage of its spending. High numbers mean cuts there mostly return money to Harrisburg or Washington rather than taxpayers.
- Implied millage (about 15.6) is an estimate: 10.8 mills × $144.0M ÷ $99.5M. The actual rate depends on the assessment base and the ordinance council adopts.
- Pooled lines began with the 2026 budget. Year-over-year line-item comparisons for those categories only work at the category level.
Treat this as a starting point for questions, not a verdict. A line that grows can be a necessary catch-up; a line that's flat can still be poorly spent.