Luzerne County Councilman Stephen A. Urban plans to propose changes to a budget amendment to allocate another $1.5 million in expenditures.
During a Tuesday hearing on the budget amendment, Mr. Urban said he does not want to add $575,489 to an unrestricted contingency account. Mr. Urban said county Manager Robert Lawton should have to ask council to release funds from the contingency account before spending funds in the account.
The contingency account already has an allocation of $700,373. Michael Giamber, a Democratic candidate for council, said an unrestricted contingency account is "a euphemism for slush fund."
On Dec. 17, council removed $150,000 from an allocation to the district attorney's office for expenses in death-penalty cases and put that amount into the contingency account. Council approved that transfer to prevent the district attorney from spending the $150,000 allocation on expenses that did not involve death-penalty cases.
Mr. Urban and Councilman Edward Brominski have objected to the manager's ability to spend unappropriated funds. Last year's budget allocated $122.6 million in general-fund expenditures, but Mr. Lawton's administration wiped out an unreserved cash balance by spending $124.9 million from the general fund.
The county collected $123.8 million in general-fund revenue last year, which reduced the general-fund deficit to $1.1 million. Council in December approved a 2013 budget that allocates $260 million in overall expenditures and $122.2 million in general-fund expenditures.
Mr. Lawton proposed the $1.5 million amendment to this year's budget. A vote is scheduled for Tuesday's meeting.
The revenue to fund the added expenses would be: $691,920 in domestic relations funding; $735,489 in income from sheriff's sales of foreclosed properties and $96,761 from the state Department of Aging. The domestic-relations funds would pay for $467,820 in building rentals, $200,000 in capital expenses and $24,100 in supplies. The revenue from the state would fund county aging services.
Contact the writer: mbuffer@citizensvoice.com