Commissioners approve FY ’26-27 budgets for 3 Lebanon County agencies

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Lebanon County Commissioners on Thursday, June 18, unanimously approved the 2026-27 budgets for three county agencies, which collectively contain a spending increase of about $300,000. 

The budgets for Area Agency on Aging, Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities/Early Intervention (MH/ID/EI), and the Lebanon County Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse were presented and approved since their fiscal years run July 1 through June 30, the same as the state.

LebTown asked county administrator Jamie Wolgemuth if the increase gives insight into what the 2027 county budget, which runs Jan. 1-Dec. 31 annually, might look like.

“There’s increases, decreases, and so on, but overall, we’re talking about a net of $300,000 here in increase on a $100 million budget,” Wolgemuth said. “So I wouldn’t say at this point that this has got to force anything just yet.”

Here’s a breakdown of the budgets for all three agencies as presented by their department directors. 

Area Agency on Aging (AAA)

The biggest budgetary increase is with AAA, with a 120% increase in county spending. Wolgemuth explained the factors behind the large increase in the county’s share of the agency’s budget.

“We’ve spent considerable time on Monday for me to get my head around this and understand why the county support is going up so significantly. And there are three reasons,” Wolgemuth said. “All of the COVID-related funds are finally expiring and the state says go back to what you got in 2019. To be realistic, that’s tough to do six or seven years later.”

The state has also mandated that counties spend down local program income, which, in the case of Lebanon County, primarily concerned funds from the prior sale of Cedar Haven to a private firm in 2014. 

Wolgemuth said the county was carrying those funds as “a way to ease county support” for the department’s annual budget. The budget notes that $605,468 had to be spent in 2025-26 due to the county only being permitted to have $400,000 maximum in local program funding heading into FY 2026-27. 

“They’re basically saying no more. They’re pressing down and saying you have to spend that down. You’re only allowed to carry so much per year. So that’s what’s happening. But from here going forward, we don’t have that any longer to ease the county support,” he said. “So between that and the increase in administration and personnel costs due to the salary study, as you mentioned, those are primarily what are making up this increase.”

Details for that department budget as presented by department administrator Adrian Layser include:

• Total revenues and expenditures are balanced at $5.1 million, which is $232,782 more than fiscal year 2025-26.
• Personnel costs have increased by $302,760, with union contract increases of 4% in the new fiscal year, salary study implementation, and the need for two protective positions representing $148,000.
• A decision is pending concerning reimbursement of desk reviews. If the final decision is not to reimburse agencies, then there would be a $200,000 decrease in department revenue.
• Although $91,063 was received from the $10 million interstate funding formula, the money does not cover inflationary increases nor addresses the number of seniors who have entered the program since the last funding increase in 2017.

A total of 28 contracts for listed services totaling $987,000 was approved, and there was a provider rate increase of up to 4.5% that was added to existing rates. 

MH/ID/EI

Administrator Holly Leahy said total funded expenses are up by $1,189,687, a 13.10% increase, adding they are now nearly $10.3 million. 

“We are still using utilization factors to reduce our actual budgeted amount, so what that means is that while we are contracting for services and supports, we do recognize that not all of those are actually utilized throughout the year based upon historical data,” she said. “So we’re really creating a budget that reflects historically what we have provided.”

Projected revenues of over $9.5 million are up $1.2 million, or 15%, from the previous year. 

“Highlights from that is really our continued use of carryover mental health, reinvestment funding from the HealthChoices system,” Leahy said. “And that’s quite a lot of money, $879,836 is budgeted for our fiscal year.” 

In her budget documentation, Leahy notes that the nearly $880,000 is not permanent and “does not address the on-going need for permanent sustainable mental health base funding.”

She said the MH and ID programs “expect a deficit of expenditures over revenues for the coming year, totaling $707,235.”

“For the total deficit, this is a projected decrease of $58,788 over last year, mostly due to an increase in project revenues,” said Leahy. “When adding the deficit to the required county match contribution of $391,360, this equals $1,098,595 in county funds to support our proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budget.”

She noted this is an overall $31,164 increase from the 2025-26 budget, but added the HealthChoices reinvestment funding is not anticipated beyond this year, meaning that while the county match will be $400,000 this year, that this lowered amount may not be sustainable in the future.

Provider contracts

Leahy said while state allocations are assumed to remain at the same level, she also noted the 2026-27 state budget is pending and any funding reductions would require the county to re-budget for the department.

She noted for fiscal year 2026-27 there are 85 provider contracts totaling nearly $6.8 million, an increase of $437,477, when compared to FY 2025-26’s budget. 

Those contracts by department or services are:

• Mental Health – $3,421,496 (increase by $12,759 or 0.37%)
• Intellectual Disability non-waiver – $1,194,120 (decrease of $20,515 or 1.69%)
• Intellectual Disability waiver – $21,410 (no change)
• Early Intervention non-waiver – $2,065,512 (increase of $434,815 or 26.66%)
• Support Services – $96,506 (increase of $10,388 or 12.06%)

In a separate matter involving this agency, commissioners unanimously approved 22 contract amendments for FY 2025-26. 

“That would be eight for intellectual disabilities, 14 for early intervention. The majority is to cover authorized and delivered units to individuals within the system,” Leahy said, adding the amendments total $113,152. “That would all be covered through our existing allocations and budget. Therefore, we are not requesting any additional county tax dollars to cover these expenditures.”

Commission on Drug & Alcohol Abuse

Executive director James Donmoyer presented the commission’s budget, noting the budget was increasing by just under $62,000.

“Our current budget is $2,667,390. This year’s projection for 2026-2027 is going to be $2,729,276. It is only an increase of $61,886, which comes out to be about 2.3% increase in our budget,” Donmoyer said. 

Expenditures via administrative costs caused the increase.

“Just to explain a few things, for that increase of $61,000, some of our expenditures obviously have increased. The biggest one being our administrative cost. Our administrative covers our salaries and benefits, so that category increased,” he said. “Our prevention category, the prevention services we provide also increased. And our case management unit and our CRS unit over Pennsylvania County Services, the cost of that also increased.” 

A memorandum notes administration costs of $388,956 are up $39,704 due to payroll increases, prevention expenditures of $278,293 increased by $6,500, treatment costs of $913,000 remain the same as the previous year, and intervention expenses increased by just under $1,000 to $148,345.

Other budget information presented include: 

• Admin case management/recovery specialist – $1,000,682 ($14,853 increase).
• Revenues from Department of Drug and Alcohol Program (DDAP) are budgeted to increase $117,260.
• HealthChoices and local assessment revenue are projected to decrease $3,000.
• Interest is expected to increase $5,000. 

As in prior years, the commission is not requesting any support from the county’s General Fund since the deficit will be made up with an increase in federal funds, according to Donmoyer. 

Commissioners also voted 2-1 to give Donmoyer the ability to reauthorize via a letter the DDAP agreement. Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz voted no, saying commissioners should conduct that action on behalf of the agency.  

Other business

In other business, commissioners unanimously voted to: 

• Accept the treasurer’s report, including a beginning cash balance of $3,480,559.38, plus receipts of $62,493.53, for a total cash balance of $3,543,052.91. Less expenditures of $30.00, and less tax claim of $15,122.57, for a cash balance of $3,527,900.34 as of June 18, 2026.
• Receive a report from the America250 committee on events July 4 at the expo center, where the annual fireworks display is being held at 9:15 p.m. instead of at Coleman’s Memorial Park.
• Pay two invoices totaling $1,800 to Kegerries Outdoor Advertising, Fayetteville, for digital advertisement displays around Lebanon County promoting July 4 activities at the expo center.    
• Award $12,000 to the Lebanon Area Fair through the Hotel Tax Grant Fund. The grant will cover costs to advertise the 2026 fair through various sources in both print and digital formats, maintain its website, provide advance online ticketing services and hardware services to read QR codes during fair week. The fair runs July 25-Aug. 1.
• Grant various personnel transactions.
• Provide real estate tax exemptions to 11 fully disabled veterans or their families.
• Approve the minutes of their June 4 meeting and June 10 executive session.  

Executive session

Immediately following the conclusion of the nearly two-hour meeting, county commissioners convened a short executive session to discuss personnel matters. After that five-minute session, the county’s MPO Policy Board, which handles transportation matters across Lebanon County, was convened.

Next meeting

Lebanon County Commissioners meet the first and third Thursday of the month at 9:30 a.m. in Room 207 of the Lebanon County Municipal Building, 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon. The next meeting will be held Thursday, July 2.