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House GOP must get ‘act together’ on state budget, governor says

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911: No major damage reported after tornado warning in Luzerne County

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Several city departments have exceeded their budgets for overtime and Mayor Tony George has told them to get it under control.</p><p>Some of the added expense was incurred during the all-hands-on-deck effort by the city to clean up after the March blizzard. The overall costs topped $1 million and included payments to private contractors hired to clear streets of the record snowfall of nearly 2 feet. If not reined in during the second half of the year, the overtime would put more pressure on city finances slammed by the unbudgeted expenses of the storm cleanup.</p><p>&#8220;The mayor is going right at it right now,&#8221; city Administrator Ted Wampole said Tuesday. &#8220;Overtime is one thing we actually do have control over.&#8221;</p><p>Salaries and benefits account for $32.3 million, or 69 percent, of the $47.1 million in expenses in this year&#8217;s balanced general fund budget. As of July 31, expenses totaled $21.2 million, or 45 percent of the budget, according to a draft of the month&#8217;s financial report. Revenues totaled $29.5 million, or 63 percent, of the budget. The balance through seven months stood at $8.4 million &#8212; still in the black but a drop of $976,147 from June.</p><p>The mayor said Department of Public Works employees had been working overtime to catch up on yard waste collections. The police and fire departments are short due to workers&#8217; compensation cases, he added.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re trying to cut back on some of this overtime, but it&#8217;s tough when you have to get things done,&#8221; the mayor said.</p><p>The draft report listed the line items for overtime budgeted, actual overtime and the percentage of the budgeted amount spent:</p><p>&#8226; Police special detail services: $2,000 budgeted, $16,327 spent or 816 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Paved streets: $1,000 budgeted, $2,420 spent or 242 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; General building and plant: $500 budgeted, $1,171 spent or 234 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Hollenback golf course: $2,500 budgeted, $4,709 spent or 188 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Ambulance services emergency: $7,500 budgeted, $13,335 spent or 178 of budget</p><p>&#8226; Waste collection special events double-time: $7,000 budgeted, $12,422 spent or 177 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Waste collection double-time: $2,000 budgeted, $3,409 spent or 170 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Waste collection: $40,000 budgeted, $62,615 spent or 156 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Waste collection special events: $10,000 budgeted, $15,043 spent or 150 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Parking enforcement traffic control: $1,000 budgeted, $1,274 spent or 127 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Firefighting: $20,000 budgeted, $25,242 spent or 126 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Public health: $500 budgeted, $632 spent or 126 percent of budget</p><p>&#8226; Building inspection: $25,000 budgeted, $30,668 spent or 122 percent of budget.</p><p><strong>Expenses pending</strong></p><p>Some big-ticket items still must be paid such as the $3 million Tax Anticipation Note, police and fire pensions and the debt service.</p><p>The city took out the TAN at the start of the year to fund operations until property taxes started to come in. The city has collected $11.1 million or 95 percent of the $11.7 million budgeted for property taxes.</p><p>The new and old fire pensions will cost the city $1.9 million. Payments for the old and new police pensions will be $2.4 million.</p><p>The city has paid $1.8 million of the debt service and has payments of $3.4 million pending by year&#8217;s end.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">George </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_Tony-George-1-.jpg</photo0><caption0>George </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Overtime costs threatening to break Wilkes-Barre budget