Oct. 15, 2025 -- Lackawanna County Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Chris Chermak introduced a $181 million operating budget for 2026 today that does not include a tax increase.

Originally, the county projected a budget deficit of about $3.9 million. Rather than raise taxes, the administration reduced the deficit with a combination of $880,000 in reduced departmental expenses devised by department heads, a plan to sell $2 million in delinquent tax liens, and a $1.1 million refund of health insurance premiums resulting from employees’ usage being below projections.

“This year’s budget demonstrates that the difficult decisions we made last year, including a significant tax increase, a wage freeze for management personnel and defunding open positions, have begun to pay off,” Gaughan said. “We are implementing reforms recommended by our financial consultant, PFM, to ensure that these improvements are for the long term.”

David Bulzoni, county chief financial officer, noted that the budget reflects improvements in the county’s bottom-line financial performance, including in health care benefit performance and in increasing the annual pension contribution until the plan becomes fully funded in 2030.

Bulzoni and Gaughan also warned that the state government’s continuing failure to adopt its budget could cause serious financial problems for the county by the end of this year. The state government reimburses all 67 counties for about 80% of their spending on human services. Lackawanna County’s budget for the Office of Youth and Family Services alone is about $41 million.

The county will conduct a series of budget hearings around the county, and continue to adjust the budget, until its final passage by Dec. 1.

View the 2026 preliminary budget here.
View the 2026 preliminary budget highlights here.