Guest Commentary

By TERRENCE

TOMASSETTI

Commissioner

Blair County

Late last month, Moody’s Investors Services downgraded Blair County’s bond rating from A1 to A2. This downgrade affects the county’s approximate $31 million in outstanding debt.

There are a number of all-too-familiar reasons for this action. Some include:

• a protracted period of structurally imbalanced operations evidenced by a continual reliance on reserves and depletion of fund balances,

• the inability to increase revenues prior to reassessment, and

• pension liabilities which are elevated because of many years of underfunding.

These and other problems have plagued the county for decades. Significant steps have been taken to address these problems over the past 10 years but recovery is not complete.

Major remedies included the sale of Valley View Home which by the time of its sale had been losing $1 million a year in Medicaid reimbursements and had not contributed towards the pension obligation of its 240 employees for over 10 years, as well as a long-overdue reassessment.

The sale of Valley View jump-started the pension correction and reassessment provided the means to significantly increase much needed annual pension contributions from $2 million to $4.2 million per year.

Regrettably, resurrection of the pension required major tax increases. County taxpayers have had to endure a monumental and very painful combined 43 percent / $10.1 million increase in their taxes from years 2016 through 2018 to help right the course.

The job is certainly not finished and we cannot afford a repeat of the practices of the past 40 years at the courthouse.

As part of a clean break from the failures of the past, we need to study through a home rule government study commission whether there is a better way to operate county government. We cannot and should not have to endure another financially crippling recovery like the one that has been forced upon us now. Remember, knowledge is power.