Schuylkill County property owners can expect to pay the same county tax in 2016 as this year.

"The Board of Commissioners will not raise the real estate tax millage for 2016 and it will remain the same at 13.98 mills," said county Finance Director Paul Buber.Commissioners expect to release a preliminary 2016 spending plan when they meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday.While the county anticipates keeping the property tax the same, there will be a deficit, so it will likely have to again tap into its reserve fund to help make ends meet.A $13.4 million drop in assessments - the first decrease in five years - will factor into the 2016 budget. That will be offset to some extent by the $10 million sale of the county nursing home.The sharp drop in assessments will put a $187,000 dent in revenue, said county administrator Mark Scarbinsky. It comes from appeals settlements and court stipulations. This year, there was a decrease due to all the court appeals the county settled, as well as court stipulations settled in 2015."The decrease in assessed values due to tax appeal cases will result in less real estate tax revenue in 2016 as well as in future years," Buber said.The drop comes at a time when the county is facing higher costs."The three biggest drivers of increased expenditures in the general fund will be for prison operations, health care benefits, and the Children and Youth Services Agency," Buber said.Details are expected to be released when the preliminary budget is unveiled.The state budget impasse is also causing budget planning headaches."The state budget is now 139 days past due, and it is having the greatest impact on budget planning for the county's human service agencies," Buber said.Commissioners' Chairman Frank J. Staudenmeier said a decade-old change in the county's budgeting method will continue to help."We implemented the zero based budgeting concept in Schuylkill County when I first became chairman back in 2004, to the credit of our row officers and department heads. This has translated into only one tax increase in the last 11 years. We also have a healthy reserve fund that should get us through another year with no tax increase. We need to see how the absence of (the county nursing home) Rest Haven will impact our future budget," he said. "I would think it would have a positive impact."The county had to supplement Rest Haven's budget, pumping about $2 million a year into the struggling home until it was sold this year for $10 million.Also, the inmate diversion program will send sentenced inmates from the county jail in Pottsville to another county to relieve overcrowding, as ordered by the state.