The Lancaster County Commissioners on Monday publicly proposed a 2013 budget that increases taxes for the first time in five years and gives county employees 2.75 percent raises.

Commissioner Dennis Stuckey, who called for the 9.3 percent tax increase, called it "regrettable, but in my opinion, necessary this year."

Commissioner chairman Scott Martin said county government isn't as efficient as it could be and indicated he would rather have seen further cuts in expenses in the $252.6 million spending plan.

"When I think about the situation a lot of folks are in right now in a struggling economy, I find it very difficult to not only say we're going to come back and raise taxes, but on top of that, we're going to turn around and give employees raises," he said.

Martin has said he would not vote for the plan and Commissioner Craig Lehman has said he would. The budget is scheduled for adoption on Dec. 31.

Under the plan, a property owner with a home assessed at the county average of $148,000 would pay about $553, or an additional $48, next year. The millage rate would increase from 3.416 to 3.735.

Stuckey said the commissioners "will be looking at more efficiencies and perhaps more cuts as time goes by."

Martin agreed.

"In our efforts to be more efficient and effective, we are not as efficient and effective as we need to be. There's a lot more that county government needs to look at," Martin said.

Lehman said the budget has no structural deficit or revenue shortage that existed in previous budgets.

"I believe closing the structural deficit is no small accomplishment," Lehman said.

The structural deficit was about $8.2 million in 2012 and about $8.1 million last year.

"All the way back to 2008, we approved budgets knowing we were on target to spend more than we were going to take in," said Maggie Weidinger, director of the county's information technology and budget services department.

Lehman and Martin also talked about the savings gained from offering a qualified high-deductible health care plan.

"If we would have been on the same path that we were on with the fully insured Capital Blue Cross, 9.5-percent-annual-increase contract that we had to run through 2012, we'd be paying close to $30 million in health insurance right now," Martin said. Instead, the cost is about $18 million.

Nearly three-quarters of county employees will take part in the high-deductible health care plan, according to Weidinger.

The budget plan included departmental cuts of 2.75 percent. The proposed budget is slightly less than this year's $253 million budget.

The budget plan does not call for any layoffs, but Weidinger said departments cut the equivalent of about 18 or 19 full-time positions by reducing part-time hours.

The budget also includes the first payments for a new countywide emergency radio system.

The county will pay $2.2 million next year toward the $26 million project.
dnephin@lnpnews.com