The Lackawanna County commissioners tabled a vote on the 2026 county budget Wednesday amid concerns about an unresolved electricity cost.
The commissioners do not expect the snag to alter plans to keep the property tax rate equivalent to this year.
Chief of staff Brian Jeffers said the county hasn’t received a solid estimate of what electricity will cost in 2026.
“Without that hard number, it would be hard pressed for you individuals to vote upon that at this moment in time,” Jeffers told the commissioners.
A delay would also give new Commissioner Thom Welby two more weeks to review the budget, he said.
Chief financial officer David Bulzoni said the county relied on 37 contracts with Constellation Energy to supply electricity. They started to expire in November and will continue expiring this month, he said.
Constellation did not bid on continuing as electricity supplier.
“We're evaluating two proposals that were received following a request for proposal process,” Bulzoni said. “The lowest cost proposal [we received] represented a 42% increase in electricity cost.”
A big bucks hike
Bulzoni said later the county budgeted $1,233,259 for electricity this year. A 42% increase would push the cost to more than $1.75 million, though that doesn't account for potential energy savings.
Before the commissioners' next meeting, Dec. 17, Bulzoni said he expects to also have a clearer idea of how much money the county’s ongoing energy savings project will save.
“We're not looking at an increase in (tax) millage to cover that (higher) cost,” Bulzoni said. “With the first several runs of the budget, we had some surplus that was realized once we had compared both revenues and expenses in the prospective 2026 budget. It (the higher electricity costs) would probably deplete that to some extent, but we really want to try and quantify it (the cost) much more closely, so we know what that number is.”
Welby, who was sworn in Nov. 25 and attended his first public meeting Wednesday, said he appreciated the extra time to review the budget.
Reassessment affects taxes
The nearly $180.7 million proposed spending plan calls for raising about the same amount in property tax revenues next year as this year because of a county reassessment.
By law, a county generally can’t raise more money the year a reassessment’s new property values go into effect than the year before.
Because of the restriction, county officials portray that as a no-tax-hike budget, but the reassessment’s adjustment of property values means some owners will pay more, some will pay less and some about the same.
The county raised taxes 33% this year to fend off spiraling budget deficits.
When they introduced the budget last month, the commissioners said the tax rate would drop to 5.79 mills in the new budget from 89.98 mills in 2025. That would produce about the same revenues as this year because total property values are expected to rise to more than $24.8 billion from almost $1.6 billion.
To figure taxes, multiply the tax rate by a property value and divide by 1,000.
