EASTON, Pa. – Northampton County Council Thursday night approved a budget for 2024 that keeps county taxes flat at 10.8 mills, or $10.80 of taxes for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.
After hours of hearings over the past commissioners voted 7-1 to approve the proposed budget; the capital improvements plan was approved 8-0.
At the eleventh hour, the council approved a set of budget amendments, including one to set aside $500,000 for a student loan payment assistance program for new county employees.
The $582.5 million budget includes $5.7 million of capital projects, mostly to be spent on updates to IT infrastructure, upgrades to the county-owned Gracedale nursing home and repairs to the county government center in Easton.
It amounts to about a 3% reduction compared to 2023’s budget.
Much of that reduction is a result of American Rescue Plan Act money running out, county Fiscal Affairs Director Steve Barron said at the budget rollout in October, or of unfilled positions working for the county that have been eliminated.
The rest comes from legacy programs being phased out, less spending on advertising, and other “efficiencies that we've come up with, positions that we have ended up losing through attrition because they are no longer needed,” Barron said. “Executive McClure often calls that ‘right-size governing.’”
Shortly after the budget was announced, McClure said that he would have cut taxes for next year if the council had approved his plan for a medical clinic serving county employees.
He is so sure the project would save the county money, he would have reallocated money ultimately paid into the county’s employee healthcare trust fund to enable a half-mill tax cut.
“I would have made a decision to ignore the actuaries because I know actuaries can't take into account the savings that I know we would have realized,” he said.
With three McClure-aligned candidates – Ken Kraft, Jeff Warren and Kelly Keegan – set to join the council in January, the county executive is poised to make good on a promise to resurrect plans for the clinic.
