SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The City of Scranton released a five-year financial forecast Wednesday outlining its recent financial turnaround and projecting a manageable budget outlook through 2030.<\/p>\n
The Five-Year Financial Projection Report, produced by the Pennsylvania Economy League with the city, reviewed Scranton\u2019s financial performance from 2020 through 2024, as well as its 2025 operating budget and adopted 2026 budget. Using conservative fiscal assumptions, the report projects city revenues and expenses through 2030.<\/p>\n
Mayor Paige Cognetti said the city\u2019s financial progress reflects years of work to stabilize Scranton\u2019s finances, allowing officials to focus more closely on long-term planning and maintaining stability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really robust document that has a look back to 2020, where we\u2019ve come from, and then looks forward until 2030 to see what the revenues and expenditures might be. Those are very conservative assumptions, but they show manageable budgetary processes in the foreseeable future,\u201d said Cognetti.<\/p>\n
The report points to the city\u2019s exit from financially distressed status in January 2022 and subsequent credit rating upgrades. Scranton now holds an A- credit rating from S&P Global Ratings with a stable outlook.<\/p>\n
S&P has cited stronger reserves, improved budget performance and reduced debt among the reasons for Scranton\u2019s credit upgrades. The higher ratings can help the city borrow at more favorable rates and lower long-term costs.<\/p>\n
The report also identifies several financial practices the city can continue using to strengthen its long-term position, including balanced budgeting, maintaining reserves and closely monitoring finances throughout the year. The city begins the five-year projection period with a fund balance built through prior operating surpluses, providing a short-term buffer against financial volatility.<\/p>\n
Debt service is expected to become less burdensome beginning in 2030, when annual payments are projected to start declining, potentially creating opportunities for the city to redirect savings toward capital projects and reserve funding.<\/p>\n
Scranton\u2019s 2026 operating-expense breakdown shows police as the largest category at 26.7%, followed by fire at 23.5%. Public works accounts for 13.8%, administration and operation 13.1%, and debt service 9.6%, with the remainder spread among other city departments and functions.<\/p>\n
The city has also developed five-year capital plans for public safety, technology, infrastructure, stormwater management and recreation. Nearly 200 projects have gone out for competitive bids during the Cognetti administration.<\/p>\n
Cognetti added that completing the forecast was voluntary. She said the exercise gives the city and its financial partners a clearer view of future conditions as Scranton prepares upcoming capital and operating budgets.<\/p>\n
The city plans to send its capital budget to Scranton City Council on Friday, with discussion set to begin when council returns in September. The operating budget is expected to follow later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The City of Scranton released a five-year financial forecast Wednesday outlining its recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-264603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264603","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=264603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}