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Unless significant whittling occurs next week, a Luzerne County Council majority may only identify enough cuts to do away with a proposed $5 vehicle registration fee or shrink the proposed real estate tax hike — not both.

The council has approved a net $934,828 in spending reductions to the county’s proposed $136.2 million 2017 general fund operating budget, and the budget adoption is set for Tuesday.

A total $1.05 million in cuts would be needed to make up for the revenue lost if the county does not exercise its state-authorized option to add a $5 registration fee on an estimated 280,190 vehicles registered in the county.

The cuts must total $4.2 million to do away with the 4 percent tax hike. The tax increase would amount to $23 more per year on a property assessed at $100,000 — $11.49 annually if the tax hike is reduced to 2 percent.

One woman who called the Times Leader to complain about the vehicle fee this week said it will cost her more than the tax hike because her family owns several vehicles and a camping trailer.

According to the state, camping trailers and motor homes are vehicles under state law and subject to the fee. The additional fee would not apply to boats because they are registered by the state Fish and Boat Commission instead of the state transportation department, a state report says. All-terrain vehicles also would not be charged the fee because they must be registered through the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the state said.

Councilwoman Kathy Dobash has submitted a proposed budget amendment to eliminate the vehicle fee, which will be discussed Tuesday.

“Basically, the public does not want this fee imposed on them,” Dobash told her colleagues earlier this week. “Are we listening?”

Councilman Harry Haas also said he won’t support the vehicle fee. He said he wants to diversify revenue to lessen reliance on real estate taxes, but “not this way.”

“It’s just not right,” Councilman Stephen A. Urban said of the fee.

No council members look forward to increasing taxes or imposing fees, said Councilman Rick Williams.

Williams pointed to extensive borrowing by prior county commissioners in the years before the January 2012 conversion to a home rule government structure. A total $26.45 million, or 19.4 percent of the proposed budget, must be earmarked to repay past debt, he said, noting these commissioners were elected.

“There’s no free lunch,” Williams said. “That’s why we’re in the predicament we are.”

Urban, a prior commissioner, said he had voted against most borrowing and faced a backlash at public meetings when he supported the 2009 countywide reassessment that corrected many inaccurate property assessments. Urban said Williams and other county officials who criticize past borrowing were not “in the audience” objecting at that time.

“Believe me, I think there are a lot of people who wish they had been there,” replied council Chairwoman Linda McClosky Houck. “It’s 2016, and we have to move forward and fix what we can.”

County Manager C. David Pedri reminded council members they must approve a balanced budget with revenue “exactly the same” as expenditures.

Based on the limited cuts approved by a majority to date, the council is not expected to come up with another $4.7 million that would be needed to restore the homestead tax break for primary residences that had been halted in 2015.

Williams
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_Williams-Rick.jpg.optimal.jpgWilliams

By Jennifer Learn-Andes

[email protected]

What’s next

Luzerne County’s 2017 budget adoption is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.