Westmoreland County officials said a 2.4% property tax increase approved Thursday is needed to balance the 2020 budget, a spending plan that will nearly drain a surplus fund and relies on a $10 million loan to pay the bills at the start of next year.

Commissioners Gina Cerilli and Charles Anderson approved the $341 million budget, which they said retains the current level of county services but carries virtually no safety net for unexpected expenses and relies on about $1.9 million in new revenue generated by a half-mill increase in property taxes.

“I’ve always said that if and when we have to raise taxes, I would only do it for the expenses for the next year,” Cerilli said. “Right now, we have our backs against the wall because we have to have a balanced budget by Dec. 31.”

She defended the tax increase as necessary and said other projected revenue streams — a potential settlement of the county’s lawsuit against opioid drug makers and taxes generated by a mini casino slated to open next year in Hempfield, for example — can’t be counted on to bolster the budget in 2020.

Cerilli said she won’t support cuts to allocations to outside agencies such as Westmoreland County Community College, the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, the transit authority, food bank and local libraries.

Discretionary funding to outside organizations accounts for more than $9.5 million of spending in next year’s budget.

Anderson, who is retiring, said he only supported the tax hike as a last resort to balance the budget.

“People of Westmoreland County expect good services, so in order to maintain those services we pretty much cut everything we can,” Anderson said. “In order to keep the lights on and the services coming that people expect, we need this additional revenue source.”

Anderson said the tax hike was the smallest the commissioners could enact to ensure that the budget is balanced.

The county last raised property taxes in 2005. The new rate, 21.49 mills, is expected to cost average taxpayers about $450 annually, a $10 increase over previous years.

Commissioner Ted Kopas, who was not re-elected, voted against the budget and tax increase.

“I’ve worked nine years to prevent a tax increase, and I’m certainly not going to do it now,” Kopas said. “I think it’s the wrong approach at the wrong time.”

Kopas also voted against Cerilli and Anderson’s plan for the county to take out a $10 million tax anticipation loan needed to cover expenses for the first few months of 2020. Anderson and Cerilli said the county won’t have enough money to pay workers or operate programs without the loan.

The budget relies on more than $90 million in funding from the state and federal governments. Property taxes are expected to generate $84.3 million and account for 25% of all revenues. More than $117 million, about 34%, of spending will pay for human service programs while 12%, or $42.6 million, is earmarked for public safety.

Finance director Meghan McCandless said the budget, as it has been for more than a decade, carries a deficit in which expenses exceed revenues by more than $5.5 million and relies on surplus funds to balance.

The preliminary budget pitched last month had a deficit of more than $9.3 million, an amount reduced by about $4 million through the tax increase and from a $1.5 million proposed sale of 110 acres of vacant land in Hempfield to the county’s Industrial Development Corp. The development agency has proposed a mixed-use plan for the site that could include administrative offices, health care facilities and housing.

The county is projected to end 2020 with $267,000 remaining in surplus, McCandless said. That account had more than $28 million in reserve in 2016 but has been used each year to balance the budget and avoid a property tax increase. Best accounting practices call for the county to have a $20 million surplus, an amount equal to two months of expenses, she said.

As part of the budget, commissioners said the county’s 465 non-union workers won’t receive raises in 2020.

“We’re raising taxes this year, so we’re not giving out raises,” Cerilli said.

Commissioners and other elected officials will still receive 1.94% raises next year. Those cost-of-living raises were determined by changes to the consumer price index calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

Commissioners also approved a 2.3% cost-of-living raise for county retirees.

The new board of commissioners that takes office in January, which includes Cerilli along with Republicans Sean Kertes and Doug Chew, can reopen the budget and set a new tax rate for 2020.

“County government has become a human services agency, and we will have to take a hard look at the budget and see if and where we can cut services or find other revenue sources,” Kertes said.

Chew said he favors rescinding the tax increase.

“I’m not happy with the 2020 budget. It doesn’t appear there was an attempt at increased efficiency or savings,” he said. “They’re pushing forward with the same mismanagement that forced us into this position over the last four years.”

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