- A new Northampton County budget, introduced Tuesday, would keep the property tax rate at 10.8 mills
- McClure said he was planning to cut taxes, had county council approved the employee health center he proposed last year
- County council will begin budget hearings this month, and must approve a budget by the end of the year
EASTON, Pa. — Property taxes would remain the same for Northampton County residents next year under a new budget introduced Tuesday by County Executive Lamont McClure.
The budget would keep county property taxes at 10.8 mills, or $10.80 for every $1,000 of property value.
In a budget address Tuesday, McClure said it includes part of $2.1 million to improve facilities at the county-owned Gracedale nursing home through 2025, $3 million for farmland preservation and spending on improvements at the county courthouse complex and prison.
In all, this year’s budget proposal is about 3% smaller than last year's, McClure said, despite inflation and growing employee healthcare costs.
Much of that reduction stems from American Rescue Plan Act money running out, county Fiscal Affairs Director Steve Barron said.
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.
"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."Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure
“Executive McClure often calls that ‘right-size governing.’”
'I would have cut taxes'
McClure said he originally planned to cut taxes half a mill in this budget, had Northampton County Council approved the employee health center he proposed last year.
Instead, he placed $4.6 million in the county’s health care trust fund.
“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.
“I would have taken that into account. I would not have put the 4.6 million into the health care trust fund and I would have cut taxes a half a mill this year, but for county council.”
McClure proposed a clinic for county employees, run by contractor Integrity Health.
Because the county is self-insured, an employee who visits the clinic instead of a doctor or urgent care clinic would save the county money: the clinic would provide care essentially at cost, a savings over whatever an outside provider would charge.
“The false narrative, again, that council is responsible for the increase in health care costs to the employees is ludicrous.”Northampton County Commissioner Lori Vargo Heffner
Northampton County Council voted in July against awarding a contract for the clinic to Integrity Health.
“The false narrative, again, that council is responsible for the increase in health care costs to the employees is ludicrous,” County Commissioner Lori Vargo Heffner said after the budget address Tuesday.
“That health center proposal was a slippery slope to getting rid of their insurance.”
Councilman John Cusick said, “I voted for the health care center... Whether or not it would have saved money, I think, was a question mark.”
McClure promised that if his slate of candidates — Ken Kraft, Jeff Warren and Kelly Keegan — win seats on county council in November, it will resurrect the employee health center proposal "in January."
