Lebanon County Commissioners approved by a 2-1 vote on Thursday, Dec. 26 its nearly $104 million budget for 2025.
The $103.9 million budget is lower than what had been proposed at their Dec. 5 meeting. Cost savings through a reduction in the county’s worker compensation premiums allowed the commissioners to lower the budget from the originally proposed $104.1 million.
County administrator Jamie Wolgemuth noted the millage rate would remain at 4.3952 mills, meaning their will be no tax increase for county taxpayers.
A homeowner next year will continue to pay about $4.39 in property tax for every $1,000 of assessed value on their home. The last county real estate millage increase occurred in 2024.
Wolgemuth said the county’s excellent MOD rating allowed for the downward budget modification.
“There was an adjustment since it was introduced. We received a renewal for our worker’s comp premium and it went down, I am happy to report,” said Woglemuth. “We have a very low MOD. An average MOD or an average rating for an employer is one, 1.0. Our MOD has gone down to .713, which is incredibly low for our exposure.”
The lower premium means the commissioners could reduce carryover funds to balance the budget from $3 million to $2.86 million.
“Small, relative to the overall budget, small change, but change nevertheless – and it is a good thing,” said Wolgemuth.
Commissioner chairman Robert Phillips and commissioner Mike Kuhn voted to approve the budget while commissioner Jo Ellen Litz was the lone no vote. Although she did not make a public comment at this meeting, she said on Dec. 5 she was opposed to renewing the PrimeCare Medical contract for medical services at the county prison without seeking new bids, and what she called a “$50,000 donation” to Penn State University.
It was noted at the prior meeting the funding compensates the university for Penn State Cooperative Extension Services and is paid by all counties across the commonwealth.
In other action items on what was a fairly light agenda the day after Christmas, the county commissioners also voted to make numerous personnel changes, including the movement of 10 casual part-time positions from the Department of Emergency Services to the county coroner’s office.
Nine of those 10 positions were renamed from casual part-time operations technicians to casual part-time coroner logistics technicians with the other being changed to casual part-time coroner administrator.
“These are all individuals who have been performing transportation for the coroner’s office, on call,” said Wolgemuth. “They have been under the banner of the Department of Emergency Services since many of them work also as hazmat technicians as they also qualify for the driving, so they have been performing that for the better part of a year or more, maybe two years.”
This move, along with the approved hiring of five additional part-time coroner logistics technicians, a full-time first deputy and a full-time office support individual, means Lebanon County will now have a fully staffed coroner’s office.
This new department will be located in the 500 block of Oak Street, Lebanon in the former offices of Community Action Partnership once the new positions are filled.
“There’s a shift in the way we’re staffing the coroner’s workload, meaning that it was being done by staff in his office and the county paid a stipend for that staff,” said Wolgemuth. “…We’re doing away with the stipends and moving to a direct department like all other row offices.”
Wolgemuth noted Lebanon County is “sitting on the fringes” of becoming a fifth class county and noted those counties all have county-staffed positions in their coroner’s offices.
In other county business, the commissioners unanimously voted to:
- Enter into an agreement for its Medication Assisted Treatment program with PrimeCare Medical of Harrisburg at a cost of $362,859.81 for 2025 for those inmates requiring treatment for opioid use disorder.
- Hire EHC Associates of Lancaster to provide asbestos abatement consulting services at a cost of $23,252 for renovations to the county municipal building.
- Reappoint Susan Werner of Jonestown to the Matthews Public Library and Denise Thomas of Myerstown to the Myerstown Community Library for three-year terms. Both of their terms are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2027.
- Agree to provide the day after Thanksgiving beginning in 2025 as a paid holiday for court-related non-professional employees and the Lebanon County Detectives Association.
- Permit full-time employees in the county’s elections office to move from 35 work weeks to 40 hour work weeks, beginning Jan. 6, 2025.
- Hire an additional full-time assistant public defender and a part-time social services advocate position, and retitle the current part-time assistant public defender position to part-time mental health assistant as part of an indigent defense grant.
- Approve the minutes of their Dec. 19 meeting.
Following adjournment of the commissioners’ meeting, the commissioners, who also serve on the county’s retirement board, convened that annual meeting.
During that session, the retirement board voted unanimously to:
- Set the annual cost of living adjustment for retired county employees in 2025 at 3.4 percent with a cost to the fund of over $3.2 million.
- Set the interest rate on employee contributions to the retirement fund at 4.5 percent.
- Approve the following 2024 lists: refunds issued to members; member deaths; and retiring members.
- Approve the minutes of numerous retirement board meetings throughout 2024.
The next meeting of the county commissioners is set for Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. in room 207 of the county municipal building at 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon. A reorganization meeting will also be held that day.
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