Preliminary Clinton County 2024 budget to be unveiled Thursday

LOCK HAVEN, PA – A 2024 operating budget for Clinton County is to be released on Thursday but as to a real estate tax increase in the new year, that’s TBD (to be determined).

Miles Kessinger, county board chairman, said at the commissioners’ Monday work session that “nothing is set in stone,” pending a scheduled Tuesday meeting with the county’s financial advisor. He said “hopefully” there will be no increase in the county’s real estate tax in 2024, but added he was “not sure this is going to be possible.”

The county has increased its real estate millage, currently 6.2, once since 2016. That hike came in 2019 for the 2020 taxing year, increasing the levy from 6.0 to the present 6.2 mills. Commissioner Jeff Snyder noted Monday, “that’s our goal,” not to impose a tax increase for next year. A year ago, when the county approved a third-straight no tax hike budget, Snyder said it was the “toughest” in his 11 years as a commissioner to pass a budget without increasing taxes.

Also Monday the commissioners heard from Marci Orndorf with the Clinton County Solid Waste Authority. The authority is seeking the county to serve as a guarantor for bonds for a planned expansion at the authority’s Wayne Township Landfill. The bond amount is $16 million, the bulk of the money, she said, for future landfill development. The landfill this year is marking its 50th anniversary.

County solicitor Larry Coploff said the county’s role in guaranteeing the bonds will be similar to the county’s guaranteeing the financing for a similar landfill upgrade in 2017-18. The commissioners have been asked to approve the needed assurances at their meeting this Thursday.