{"id":9989,"date":"2013-12-11T18:02:05","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T23:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=9989"},"modified":"2013-12-11T18:02:45","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T23:02:45","slug":"county-commissioners-approve-2014-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=9989","title":{"rendered":"County commissioners approve 2014 budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spending plan does not necessitate tax increase<\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
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\"Chester<\/a>

Chester County Commissioners Ryan Costello (from left), Terence Farrell, and Kathi Cozzone unanimously approved a 2014 budget with no tax increase.<\/p><\/div>\n

As expected, the Chester County Commissioners unanimously approved the 2014 budget on Wednesday, a spending plan that holds the line on taxes for county residents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis budget reflects Chester County\u2019s commitment to provide the best services at the lowest cost to the taxpayer,\u201d said Commissioners\u2019 Chairman Ryan Costello.\u00a0 \u201cIt demonstrates our continuing process of maintaining tight control over expenditures, while seeking new, cost-effective methods to deliver the services that are mandated, and that our residents want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2014 budget calls for $429,821,896 in operating expenses and $92,929,096 for its capital budget.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Kathi Cozzone applauded county employees\u2019 efforts in the process. \u201cWe faced the challenges of decreasing revenues and increased funding needed for emergency services and other critical services for our citizens,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m pleased that our staff has again been able to prepare a budget that continues to provide quality services at a reasonable cost to our taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Terence Farrell noted that increases in health benefits as well as capital investments had to be addressed.\u00a0 \u201cPublic safety remains one of our top priorities, and this budget includes the necessary multi-year investment in a new emergency services radio system, along with the expansion of the Public Safety Training Campus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Chester County\u2019s tax rate remains one of the lowest in southeast Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In the past five years, the county has streamlined the operating costs of county departments and reduced the number of full-time employees.\u00a0 It has also undertaken regular reviews of health benefit costs which, combined with its employee wellness program, has resulted in a\u00a0medical cost increase of two percent, well below the national average increase in health costs, county officials said.<\/p>\n

The balanced budget was attained despite declining revenue \u2013 including decreases in state and federal funds \u2013 and the investment linked with the addition of two new Court of Common Pleas judges.\u00a0 The county\u2019s property tax base slightly increased.\u00a0\u00a0 Chester County continues to actively manage its debt requirements, with its Aaa\/AAA ratings being reaffirmed at the end of October by Moody\u2019s, Standard & Poor\u2019s and Fitch Ratings, officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spending plan does not necessitate tax increase As expected, the Chester County Commissioners unanimously approved the 2014 budget on Wednesday, a spending plan that holds the line on taxes for county residents. \u201cThis budget reflects Chester County\u2019s commitment to provide the best services at the lowest cost to the taxpayer,\u201d said Commissioners\u2019 Chairman Ryan Costello.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1512,2367,1703,3488,954],"class_list":["post-9989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-commissioner-kathi-cozzone","tag-commissioner-terence-farrell","tag-commissioners-chairman-ryan-costello","tag-moodys","tag-standard-poors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}