Should Lebanon Hold Collected State Revenue in Escrow

Lebanon PA 9/10/09: Similar to Butler, Clearfield, Lancaster, and Lawrence, Lebanon County discussed holding collected State money in an escrow account and drawing interest until the budget impasse is over. Commissioner Carpenter said that our State Legislators are supportive.

Commissioner Litz shared a memo from County Commissioner Association of PA Director Doug Hill, Initially, there are issues of which funds and whether all of the row offices responsible for collecting those funds are willing to violate the law to do so and do so uniformly within the courthouse and across the state. The obvious other side of this point is that the state itself is violating the Constitution by not having a budget in place as required, and inflicting severe fiscal distress on the counties and their taxpayers and clients at the same time.

The other question is whether this is to be done to tide over cash flow, or to make a statement to the Administration and General Assembly.

The third point is that some of the funds (realty transfer tax, estate taxes, some licenses) are commonwealth monies but others (fines and court costs, adult supervision fees, hunting licenses, escheats) go to other agencies or dedicated funds that are not part of the reason for the impasse.

Last, there may be some repercussions against row offices who knowingly withhold, although it is not likely that it would proceed to forfeiting bonds.

Butler County Controller had sent a memo to their President Judge, row officers, and department heads stating, "Collectively your offices turn over several million dollars annually to the state. Stop doing this immediately. Effective today all monies you collect on behalf of the commonwealth shall be remitted to the county general fund instead. The monies will be used to partially offset the funds we have been forced to dole out to programs the state is obligated to fund. The controller will keep good records of what you send us and we will make sure your collections get forwarded on to the state treasurer once a budget passes and normal state funding of these programs resumes."The Lebanon County solicitor will give us an opinion next week.

The difference between Butler and Lebanon County's proposals is that Butler will spend the money while Lebanon will hold the money in escrow.

The Lebanon County solicitor will give us an opinion next week.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• PA Budget
• Lebanon County
• Jo Ellen Litz
• www.joellenlitz.com

[jsmythib]

Sounds reasonable to me.

If they do pass a budget and the issue dies..it will be back again stronger than ever..and in short order. Tame them now.