Lebanon County Commissioners approve budgets for three social agencies

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Lebanon County Commissioners on June 19 approved three budgets for fiscal year 2025-26 for social service agencies who receive state funding.

The funding requests came from the Lebanon County Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities/Early Intervention (MH/ID/EI), Lebanon County Commission on Drug & Alcohol Abuse, and the Lebanon County Area Agency on Aging.

Each agency’s fiscal year align with the start of the state’s annual fiscal year on July 1. 

Lebanon County MH/ID/EI

Funding included in the state’s final budget, which my not be approved by the June 30 deadline, will determine the amount of debt for the new fiscal year for the county’s MH/ID/EI department, according to department administrator Holly Leahy. That agency is facing a deficit of over $1.1 million, she added.

“We are not budgeting or anticipating any increase in state mental health or intellectual disability funding. While we are budgeting for flat federal and state funding, we are also noting the possibility of funding cuts and additional loss of revenue,” Leahy told commissioners. “When we look at the deficit, encompassed within the mental health and intellectual disability programs, we expect a deficit of expenditures over revenues for the upcoming year, in a total of $766,023 agency-wide.”

Leahy said deficits are expected due to increases in costs for provider services, personnel and computer and information technology direct expenditures, adding the total deficit is a projected increase of $388,659 over last year’s deficit.

Overall, departmental expenses are projected to increase by $303,550 (3.46 percent) and total over $9 million while projected revenues are $8.3, down by $85,109 (1.01 percent). 

Leahy said her department requested $600,000 in county funds to cover the projected deficit of $766,023 on the required county match of $363,736.

“At this time, we do not anticipate requesting an increase in our county funds for ’25-26 above the $600,000, which we have received in the last four years,” she added. “If the governor’s statewide proposal of an additional $20 million for mental health base funds is passed, this should almost cover the mental health deficit for Lebanon County, which would bring our need for additional county support in line with the $600,000 we requested.”

Leahy said her agency will work to avoid seeking additional taxpayer dollars under its current proposed budget.

“We will work to manage the agency budget all year long to decrease expenses as much as possible and avoid requesting additional county tax dollars in ‘25-26,” she said. “Last June, 2024, when I presented, I projected that we would be looking at a deficit of$1,339,234 in fiscal year ’25-26. We are very close to this projection at $1,129,759, and only saved by the one-time leftover HealthTraces revenue.”

The loss of that one-time cost savings may be a cautionary tale of what’s to come in future years for that department’s budget.

“I will caution that with the loss of HealthTraces revenue in fiscal year ’26-’27, even without funding cuts, our projected deficit will potentially skyrocket to $1,911,783, which may not be manageable solely with $600,000 in county funds,” Leahy said. “Governor Shapiro has once again included $20 million dollars statewide in his proposed ’25-26 budget for mental health-based funding, which would certainly help this year, but even if his budget is approved we will continue to see increasing and unmanageable deficits.”

The county commissioners unanimously voted to approve the department’s fiscal year 2025-26 agency-wide budget, which includes $600,000 in county funds to cover the required county match for services and the deficit to the department’s base funding.

In a separate matter concerning that department, commissioners voted unanimously to approve 89 provider contracts totaling $6.36 million, an increase of $535,975 over last year’s budget, according to Leahy. 

“When breaking down each program, overall mental health contracts total $3,408,737, increased by $293,521 from fiscal year ’24-’25. Intellectual disability non-waver contracts total $1,214,635, an increase by $147,709. And then we also have our intellectual disability waiver contracts in the total of $21,410, which actually decreased $701. That was however based on our funding from the state for this program. Not a choice on our part,” she said. “Early intervention non-waiver contracts in the total of $1,630,697 increased from last year by $91,995. Mandated services must be included in our contract. … Then for support services, contracts in the total of $86,118 increased by $3,451.”

Lebanon County Commission on Drug & Alcohol Abuse

Susan Douglas, fiscal operations officer, presented the commission’s proposed 2025-26 budget, which was approved by county commissioners. She said the department’s budget is $2,667,390, an $112,435 increase (about 4.4 percent) over last fiscal year. 

“The increase is mostly coming from an increase in our opioid settlement fund expenditures, combined with some lowering of a few of our contracts for the new fiscal year. Some of the highlights, we are using opioid settlement money and up to $455,000 is in the budget this year,” said Douglas. “There are three programs that are ongoing, which is the MAT maintenance program at the prison, which is a $100,000 contract.”

Douglas said the program’s contract was capped this year even though more funds could have been spent like they were previously.

“They could have spent way more, and they did last year. So we have kept them to the contract simply because the funding for ’24-’25 from the drug and alcohol program from the state has just been very much in flux,” she added. “We were not able to request, we requested additional funds, but we got not nearly what we requested. So we had to keep our contracts at a cap.”

She said the other expenditures were for a part-time correctional officer at the prison who helps administer the MAT program.

“These are for people coming into the prison who were on methadone maintenance or some type of MAT program. It allows them to continue that program in the prison,” said Douglas. “And we also have the other one is a dedicated adult probation position, which is $90,000, which will be again this year. Those are the three programs that are continuing with the first wave of opioid settlement money.”

Douglas said the second wave of funding came in this year, and the commission is instituting an outreach program with the RAISE project at a cost of $25,000 a year for a MAT induction program at LCCF. “So we have people who when they come in, this is an induction. If they come into the prison and they want to go on an MAT program, this gives them the ability to start MAT while they’re in the prison system,” said Douglas. “So that when they come out, they’ll be ready to continue their care. And that is $150,000 a year for the next 13 years.

She noted there will also be a prevention specialist through CompassMark that’s budgeted at $60,000 a year to help pay for an individual to conduct drug and alcohol prevention services.

“They have had a lot of increases in their staffing and they want to continue in the schools the way they have been, so that is part of our new second wave opioid settlements,” said Douglas. “So that’s why that increased to $455,000 for this year.”

Before commissioners voted unanimously to fund this budget request, it was noted that provider contracts were being postponed until Jan. 1.

“We’ve reached the end of our five-year grant agreement with DDAB, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, as of June 30,” said Douglas. “The new five-year agreement for 2025-2030 is still in DDAB’s legal department, being reviewed for language. They’ve given us a start date for the new grant agreement of Jan. 1, 2026, and at that time, we will present new five-year contracts probably in November/December for new contracts.”

Lebanon County Area Agency on Aging

The county’s Area Agency on Aging presented total revenues and expenditures of $4.84 million for 2025-26, an increase of $325,482 over the 2024-25 budget, according to Kathleen Dugan, departmental deputy administrator 2. 

She stated there are 32 provider contracts for services budgeted at just over $1 million, personnel cost increases of 4 percent each for union and non-union positions, and increased computer and information technology costs projected in the new budget.

Three personal care contracts containing 4.5 percent increases per provider as authorized by the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, according to Dugan, are included for the department’s new fiscal year budget.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve 2025-26 provider contracts and the new fiscal year budget. 

Other county business

In other business, commissioners unanimously voted to:

• Pay 11 amended contracts totaling $40,224 for fiscal year 2024-25 for the Area Agency on Aging department.
• Cover four provider contract amendments for fiscal year 2024-25 for the MH/ID/EI department totaling $19,330. There was one for early intervention, two for intellectual disabilities, and one for building maintenance. Those were covered through the department’s current allocations and budget, meaning there was no request for any additional county tax dollars for these expenditures.
• Approve three requests from Lebanon County Children & Youth Services, including $44,685.37 for the annual AVANCO automated case management system contract for fiscal year 2025-26, the CAI contract for professional fiscal consulting services at $115 per hour for up to 400 hours and a maximum total of $46,000 through June 30, 2026, and the payment of fiscal year 2024-25 third quarter invoices totaling over $4.08 million.
• Agree to a new contract with Abraxas Academy for two juvenile detention beds at their Morgantown facility. The per diem is $800 per day, up from $720 per day under the current contract that expires on June 30. The county is moving one bed in Cambria County to this facility, for a total of two at that location, but commissioners also voted as part of this motion to maintain a working relationship with Adelphoi Manor Detention in Cambria County. That agreement provides an opportunity to have access to a third bed on an as-needed basis.
• By a 2-1 split vote, provide $12,000 to the Lebanon Area Fair for 2025 fair advertising and to renew the fair’s contract with Saffire to maintain the fair’s website and be a third-party provider for online ticketing for ticketed events at the fair, which runs July 19-26. Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz voted no, explaining that she didn’t have a clear picture of the financial numbers concerning the balance in the hotel tax grant fund account, which stood around $400 below the requested amount. Payment was contingent upon having the account funded at a level high enough to grant the requested amount.
• Pay an invoice totaling $2,042.50 to Mister Bobbin Embroidery Inc. of Annville for America250PA promotional hats. 
• Provide real estate tax exemptions to five fully disabled veterans or their families.
• Accept various personnel transaction recommendations from the county’s Human Resources office, the minutes of their June 5 meeting, and the treasurer’s report.

Lebanon County Commissioners meet the first and third Thursday of the month in Room 207 of the county municipal building, 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon.