Cities need tools to ease budget pain

The COVID-19 pandemic has put extra pressure on services upon which we depend in everyday life.

In the City of Lancaster, that includes services provided by first responders, who must be available around the clock. But the health crisis has also put a new spotlight on the ongoing budget challenges faced by the city.

To that end, a joint op-ed in the May 3 Sunday LNP ‘ LancasterOnline Perspective section — by Scott Little, chief of the Lancaster City Bureau of Fire, and Jarrad Berkihiser, chief of the Lancaster City Bureau of Police — called on elected officials to put aside politics and better support public safety.

An unfortunate running theme during this crisis is that we’re seeing the extent to which parts of government infrastructure are truly in need of reform.

It’s a shame that the leaders of Lancaster’s fire and police departments had to make a direct plea to Harrisburg lawmakers to give their city more revenue tools. Lancaster city Mayor Danene Sorace has been pressing this same case since she took office.

In January, Sorace wrote an op-ed for LNP ‘ LancasterOnline that detailed the basic framework of the city’s annual revenues and expenditures.

The only source of revenue Lancaster controls is the property tax.

The other revenue sources — earned income tax, the local services tax and the real estate transfer tax — are all fixed by state law.

“We need solutions that create a new, equitable and sustainable fiscal structure that will allow cities like Lancaster to keep thriving,” Sorace wrote.

We agreed. We noted in a January editorial that the same revenue challenge is faced by most of Pennsylvania’s more than 50 third-class cities. That designation requires them to provide full-time fire and police services.

In Lancaster, the lack of revenue-generating flexibility has led to a structural deficit in the city budget in which annual expenses are increasing by 3% while revenues are only increasing by 1%. (And this was before COVID-19.)

We urged the county’s delegation to Harrisburg — led by Republican House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler of Peach Bottom and Republican state Sens. Scott Martin of Martic Township and Ryan Aument of Mount Joy — to support Sorace’s push for substantive changes.

Specifically, we believe third-class cities should have more flexibility with the earned income and local services taxes. And, of course, cities would benefit from property tax reform.

Homeowners, especially seniors, and public school districts would benefit from property tax reform, too. We mention this frequently.

It seems Harrisburg hasn’t listened to Sorace.

So it was Little’s and Berkihiser’s turn at bat.

They conveyed in their op-ed the urgent need for meaningful help from Harrisburg through the lens of a pandemic that has put unprecedented stress on Lancaster city’s budget.

A pandemic in which lives are literally at stake.

“Our dedicated team of police officers and firefighters continues to be on the front lines providing the excellent level of service to which our community has grown accustomed, helping those in a time of crisis,” Little and Berkihiser wrote.

An unfortunate running theme during this crisis is that we’re seeing the extent to which parts of government infrastructure are truly in need of reform.