{"id":127191,"date":"2026-03-02T05:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127191\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:31:07","slug":"lackawanna-countys-2026-digital-budget-book-available-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127191\/","title":{"rendered":"Lackawanna County’s 2026 digital budget book available online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lackawanna County recently announced the completion of its \u201cdigital budget book\u201d for 2026, an online tool designed to make the\u00a0county\u2019s annual operating budget more accessible, transparent and digestible to residents and taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The county, which unveiled its first digital budget book last year, approved a contract in 2024 with vendor ClearGov for the digital budget book software. That renewable pact costs $14,000 annually and runs through 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book, compiled by the Revenue & Finance Department, the Communications Office and contracted vendor ClearGov.com, with input from every county department head and elected official, exponentially increases the amount of information available to the public,\u201d county officials noted in a recent news release. \u201cThe digital format converts complex, static documents into user-friendly, interactive visualizations to modernize county government and enhance transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also includes \u201cdetailed descriptions of the budget process, advanced graphics on every department\u2019s revenue and expenditures in the 2026 budget, and narratives of how the county uses public money to deliver crucial public services,\u201d the release notes. \u201cEach department head details accomplishments from the previous year and plans and goals for 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that and other respects, the digital budget book is a user-friendly alternative to the county\u2019s traditional budget, a 40-plus-page breakdown of revenues and expenditures by line item. That version, like its digital counterpart, is available online at lackawannacounty.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Commissioners Thom Welby, Bill Gaughan and Chris Chermak unanimously approved the county\u2019s tax-hike-free 2026 budget in December after Gaughan and Chermak introduced a draft version in mid-October. Welby took office in November after winning a special election to fill the remainder of former Commissioner Matt McGloin\u2019s unexpired term running into early January 2028.<\/p>\n

The final, almost $181 million spending plan carried a projected general fund surplus of $119,354. And while the budget did not increase property taxes, individual tax bills may have fluctuated this year compared to 2025 as a result of the county\u2019s first comprehensive property reassessment since 1968.<\/p>\n

Because reassessment must be revenue neutral for the county and other taxing bodies, tax rates fell precipitously this year when new, higher assessments took effect to ensure those entities collect essentially the same amount of property tax revenue after reassessment as they did before. The county\u2019s tax rate, for example, dropped from 89.98 mills to just 5.79 mills this year, a mill being a $1 tax on every $1,000 of assessed value.<\/p>\n

Taxpayers who pay their county property taxes in full by April 15 receive a 2% discount off the face value of their bills. They also have the option of paying the face value in four equal installments due on March 31, June 30, Aug. 31 and Oct. 30, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lackawanna County recently announced the completion of its \u201cdigital budget book\u201d for 2026, an online tool designed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-127191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}