It’s budget season, and numbers loomed large Wednesday at the Schuylkill County commissioners’ meeting.

County officials are in the process of crafting next year’s spending plan, and commissioners are confident the finances are on solid ground.

“We’re in really good shape going into 2027,” said Chairman Larry J. Padora Jr.

Treasurer Linda L. Yeich offered a peek at how departments are working to make sure it stays that way.

“Behind the scenes, there is a constant effort to review expenses, manage budgets responsibly, improve efficiency, and identify opportunities to save taxpayer dollars,” she said.

She gave examples, saying that commissioners have asked departments heads to review contracts, evaluate purchasing costs and seek competitive pricing.

The finance department, under Director Glenn A. Geissinger, “is finding ways for county departments to work together to reduce unnecessary expenses,” Yeich said.

County Controller Sharyn M. Yackenchick is “identifying operationally efficiencies with her staff, reviewing every county vendor to initiate ACH payments versus printing, mailing, and stuffing checks,” she said.

ACH, or automated clearing house, is an automated bank-to-bank transfer of money.

Further, Sheriff Shawn Butler is exploring funding opportunities, an recently secured $150,000 for training and equipment.

Yeich’s own office is one person short after an employee took another county position. She encouraged her staff of four to “work harder, work smarter and rise to the challenge.

“This resulted in savings of payroll benefits of $65,000 in exchange for getting a small payroll increase of $2,700. Smaller team, but a big commitment to excellence from the treasurers’ office staff,” she said.

County Engineer Lisa Mahall earned kudos from County Administrator Gary Bender for scouting out the best prices for gas and electric for county buildings.

Her work will save the county $41,469 over current PPL prices for electricity.

She negotiated with natural gas suppliers to get the lowest prices for the fuel for smaller county buildings. Before, the county couldn’t get separate prices for the smaller buildings, such as the one housing the Children and Youth Services Agency and Adult Probation, instead having to pay UGI’s blanket price, a higher rate.

The two primary natural gas users are the courthouse and the prison. The savings for those two buildings will be $38,646. The smaller building will see a savings of $2,284.

As a result, commissioners Barron L. Hetherington and Padora, with Gary J. Hess absent, agreed to sign contracts with three energy providers.

Constellation Energy, Baltimore, Maryland, will provide natural gas for the courthouse and prison for two years beginning Jan. 1, 2027, at $3.810 per dekatherm (a unit of energy that measures heat and volume) as of Oct. 23. The price will be reviewed prior to the commissioners’ meeting on Oct. 28 given the current market fluctuations.

The second contract is with Shipley Energy of York, for natural gas for the Human Services and Children and Youth, and Adult Probation buildings. That two-year contract begins with the November-December 2026 meter read and runs through the November-December 2028 meter read. The cost of the gas is $5.540 DTH as of Oct. 23, and that, too, will be updated prior to the Oct. 28 meeting.

The third contract is with Freepoint Energy Solutions, Houston, Texas, to supply electricity to the county’s 35 accounts, beginning with the December 2026 meter reads through the December 2028 meter reads. The cost is 10.746 cents per kilowatt hour as of Oct. 23. It, too, will be updated prior to the Oct. 28 meeting.

The cost is fixed, with pass-through capacity and transmission costs.

While the cost-cutting efforts are paying off, Padora is at looking long-term revenue streams.

The county relies largely on property tax revenue to fuel its general fund, but Padora wants to be able to persuade the state to allow Schuylkill to enact a sales tax, as Philadelphia and Allegheny counties do.

The state sales tax is 6 percent. Philadelphia levies an additional 2 percent and Allegheny 1 percent.

Padora said he’s rallying support among other counties to convince the state to allow more of them to impose the tax. Counties are not allowed to levy taxes other than on property.

He’ll pitch the idea at the next County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania conference.

“The best idea is for every county to have a small, minimal sales tax. Then everybody’s paying it. It’s a consumption tax,” he said.

“It helps your seniors, because they aren’t out buying a new car every week or going on vacations every other week or going out driving as much. So that’s a way to help our seniors not to have property tax increases,” Padora said.

“We’re trying to get CCAP behind this to give the counties more tools other than always taxing a person’s home. It’s not fair. I’m a big proponent in that I don’t even believe we should have property taxes. If I had the power to do something about it, I would.”