(File Photo of the Beaver County Courthouse)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Beaver, PA) Several topics were discussed at the Beaver County Commissioners’ work session this morning at 10 a.m. at the Beaver County Courthouse in Beaver. During the Department Head Report of the work session, Beaver County Controller Maria Longo mentioned the main topic addressed, which was increased and excessive spending as well as spending on items that were unacceptable in Beaver County. Longo has brought this up in a few other sessions looking for a solution because she is concerned about it and she stated that “as of this date, revenues are at $72.1 million, which is 66% of budget and expenses are at $81.2 million, 75% of budget, for a deficit of $9.1 million, and these numbers don’t include payroll that just posted to date which adds another $2 million, which puts us $11 million behind for 2025.” Longo also let the Commissioners know about several other matters including the $3,200 of charges on credit cards that were spent on non-essential promotional items with personal names on them and expenditures in increased travel. Longo is reporting these issues because she believes that this deficit spending that she is mentioning is wrong and it could have been avoided. Beaver County Commissioner Chairman Dan Camp recommended to Longo after rhetorically asking what can we do to solve the credit card issue is that no one has a credit card and everything is completed via a purchase unless someone is traveling. Chairman Camp also noted that the Commissioners’ heads of department as well as elected officials need to be responsible for holding their credit cards unless for example, they have to go to a hearing. In other business, during the Commissioners’ Report of the work session, Beaver County Commissioner Jack Manning stated that the Commissioners attended the County Commissioners’ Association’s Fall/Winter Coference in Hershey the weekend before Thanksgiving. Manning confirmed that most of the talks there were about the Pennsylvania state budget and he said that 911 funding is the top priority for all sixty-seven Pennsylvania counties after a voting session taken at that conference for the priorities for 2026, followed by mental health funding and assistance with timely reassessment. Manning also gave congratulations to the staff of the Beaver County Jail after a recent inspection there, which went well despite some minor itesm that could be found with procedures and policies.