Commissioners work to get Lackawanna County out of the red

SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — More steps to get Lackawanna County’s finances out of the red were discussed and approved Tuesday.

It’s no secret Lackawanna County is facing major debt issues, the commissioners have implemented strategies already, such as hiring a consultant group to create an outlook for the next five years.

Just a few weeks ago, two out of the three commissioners agreed to use the scoop-and-toss method , essentially taking out new loans to pay off older debt to help close the gap in the 2025 budget.

The commissions approved two more actions at Tuesday’s meeting to get Lackawanna County back on track financially.

The first approval is a partnership with Fidelity Bank, making the bank the single-point paying agent for the county’s debt payments.

“When tax money comes in it goes into the general fund which is essentially a black hole, instead of it going into the black hole, we’re putting it into a trust so that the debt service is paid on time and it’s paid every single year, that helps the credit rating agencies know that we’re going to pay it no matter what,” said Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan.

The second approval is for Tyler Technologies to create a priority-based budget plan to help with the 2025 budget.

Essentially looking at all of the county’s resources and how they can utilize them better

“We’re trying to take a different look and gain a different perspective on how we conduct our finances in the county cause what we’re currently doing is not working,” Gaughan explained.

“We’ll see what they say, it’s gonna cost us 100,000 dollars to find out, but let’s see what happens,” Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak said.

While these resolutions sound like a step in the right direction to get Lackawanna County out of debt, many are wondering, how will this affect taxes?

“Oh, there’s no doubt in my mind it’s going to be significantly raised, which is a shame,” Chermak added.

“Where you have a $15,000,000 deficit and you’re staring down the barrel of 19 million dollars in bills, you cannot honestly think that we’re gonna go into next year without raising taxes,” Gaughan stated.

Commissioners say it’s too early in the 2025 budget to say exactly how much the taxes will be raised, but there is a good chance taxpayers will see an increase.

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