Lackawanna County commissioners are expected to vote Wednesday on the county’s 2026 budget, a $181 million spending plan that does not include a tax increase.
Wednesday’s session will also be the first public meeting for new Democratic Commissioner Thom Welby, who recently took the oath of office and joined Democrat Bill Gaughan and Republican Chris Chermak on the three-member board of commissioners.
Welby comfortably won a Nov. 4 special election to fill the remainder of former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin’s unexpired term and replaced appointed Democratic Commissioner Brenda Sacco, who had held the seat since Oct. 22.
Gaughan and Chermak unveiled the county’s preliminary 2026 budget in mid-October, with both commissioners backing the tax-hike-free fiscal blueprint that was subsequently the subject of several public budget hearings. Sacco, Gaughan and Chermak then held a first reading of the budget ordinance Nov. 19, setting up Wednesday’s vote to adopt it.
While the 2026 budget does not increase taxes, individual tax bills may fluctuate next year as a result of the county’s first comprehensive property reassessment since 1968. Reassessment is designed to achieve tax fairness by updating assessed property values used to calculate tax bills and bring them in line with market values.
With that yearslong process now complete, the county’s property tax rate is dropping precipitously next year, from 89.98 to just 5.79 mills, to ensure the reassessment is revenue neutral as required by state law. A mill is a $1 tax on every $1,000 of assessed property value.
A general rule of thumb is that about a third of tax bills increase with reassessment, a third decrease and a third remain more or less the same.
Unlike the reassessment, which was a highly contentious issue in recent months and the subject of considerable sparring between Gaughan and Chermak, the budget has not been a source of hostility between the two. This year’s budget process stands in stark contrast to last year’s in that respect, with sometimes bitter debate over the 2025 budget and the nearly 33% tax hike it included to address a pronounced fiscal crisis dominating meetings in late 2024.
Both Gaughan and Chermak reiterated their support for the 2026 spending plan in recent phone interviews.
“So far everybody is good with it,” Chermak said. “We had to make a couple minor adjustments … but yeah, it should pass with no problem. There’s no issues that I know of.”
Welby was still in the process of reviewing the proposed budget last week but said he largely supported what he’d reviewed to that point, despite there being some areas where he thinks improvements can be made. He planned to continue studying the proposal ahead of Wednesday’s vote, he said.
A copy of the proposed budget is available online at lackawannacounty.org.
Wednesday’s meeting will be held in the fifth-floor conference room of the county government center, 123 Wyoming Ave., Scranton, beginning at 10 a.m.