On Wednesday, December 23, the county commissioners formally passed the County’s 2010 operating budget. In the course of related discussion, the commissioners weighed in on the County’s anticipated capital expenditures for next year, which total about $31 million. According to Commissioner Scott Martin, however, those expenses could—and perhaps should—be reduced by cutting the County’s Urban Enhancement grant program in 2010.
The Urban Enhancement program allocates sizable grants to county municipalities with the purpose of “sustaining the urban areas of Lancaster County to accommodate growth.” In 2009, the County handed out 27 grants, totaling $2 million. The allocations ranged from highly practical uses, such as sewer system upgrades or handicapped accessibility improvements, to more questionable ones, such as $20,000 for a Lancaster City streetcar feasibility study.
Commissioner Martin told NewsLanc that, in his opinion, the County should consider turning off the valve altogether next year, noting that the commissioners have already halted grant funding for green infrastructure and municipal transportation. Given that $7 million in previous grants remains unspent and that far more than $2 million in federal stimulus funds will be available in 2010, Martin asserted, the absence of Urban Enhancement dollars would not pose too great a blow to county municipalities.
Capital expenses, Martin explained, should now be kept to a strict minimum in anticipation of costly needs that loom on the horizon, such as a new forensic center, prison facilities, and a new location for Children and Youth services. “I’d like to keep the amount we have to borrow as low as possible, so we’re not increasing our debt service so much next year,” Martin said.
During the public meeting, Martin asserted that, if sustained, the program should tighten its requirements for grant distribution. “I really hope, if the [Urban Enhancement] program is something that the will of the board would move forward on in 2010, that the guidelines for the types of projects that are funded truly meet the needs of the community,” Martin said, “I think [they] have been a stretch over the last couple of years.”
Martin later told NewsLanc that grants he considered “a stretch” would include those that funded “parks” and “paper”—or aesthetic improvements and studies—rather than supporting “projects that allow growth and redevelopment to occur in these areas.”
According to a table distributed with the Commissioners Work Session agenda, another $2 million Urban Enhancement allocation is anticipated for 2010; however, Commissioner Dennis Stuckey stressed that the listed capital expenses only serve as a tentative “road map.” Individual line items—including Urban Enhancement—will be further discussed in the coming months, Stuckey said.
