Chris Kelly Opinion: The price of unserious people in serious positions

Of all the many jobs for which I was seriously unqualified, my yearlong stint as manager of a Sunoco station stands out as particularly cringeworthy.

It was 1989. The minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. I was 20 and my résumé was so thin I listed my previous position at the Exxon up the street as "refined petroleum dispensary agent." When the preceding manager moved on, I was in no position to turn down the position. The job paid an extra hundred bucks a week and the manager made his own schedule.

I was young and dumb and didn't notice that when the departing manager "showed me the ropes," he was actually fitting me for a noose. The place ran on a cash drawer and daily inventory. No register. Daily deficits were common, and occasionally considerable.

In that event, my predecessor advised me to "just roll it over" by shorting the next day's take – literally plundering the future to pay for today. Over time, he assured me the missing money would be made up in occasional overages. A year later, I was paying the consequences out of my own pocket and collecting unemployment.

I've got a much better job today but I'm still paying the consequences of putting unserious people in serious positions. If you're a Lackawanna County taxpayer, too, so are you. Let's not pretend that's new, or that the 33% property tax hike we're facing wasn't years and successive unserious administrations in the making.

Some of the unserious people in those serious positions were Republicans. Most were Democrats. One was a Democrat who ran as a Republican when necessary. Some held off a countywide property reassessment for decades. Others finally passed it and, their duty "done," took a long lunch.

Instead of incremental, responsible tax increases to keep up with inflation, these unserious officials mollified us with gimmicks and quick "fixes." We paid for it with a 37.5% hike in 2012, 4.4% in 2013, 11.3% in 2020 and 5.9% this year and seemed poised to reenter the same, self-owning cycle in 2025.

Enter Democratic Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Matt McGloin, who inherited $18 million in unpaid bills, $6 million in the general fund and a structural deficit projected to reach about $29 million next year. Proving themselves serious people, the new majority commissioners made hard decisions aimed at breaking the cycle and setting a saner, sustainable path forward.

"We promised back in January when we took over that we were going to be honest," Gaughan said at a public hearing on the proposed budget. "We promised you that we were not going to sit up here as other commissioners did and just completely abdicate their ... fiduciary responsibility to this budget and to this county. So we have given it to you completely straight."

Oh, how the unserious wailed! Former Republican Commissioner Laureen Cummings asked Gaughan and McGloin to find a way to pare down the massive tax increase her four-year reign of error helped make necessary.

Not to be outdone in unseriousness, Republican Minority Commissioner Chris Chermak presented an "alternative budget" best suited for an alternate reality. His "plan" is the definition of "too little, too late." Chermak proposed "reallocating" $17 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that won't exist in 2026, would not dent the structural deficit and has already been obligated to other projects in progress. "Reallocation" of the funds would squander investments already made and could invite lawsuits.

Even if the ARPA money was available, it would be a band-aid on a gaping wound. Using one-time revenue sources to "balance" budgets is a cause of the mess we're in, not a solution. Despite his fantasies about federal money and savings through cutting positions that are wholly or mostly funded by the state, Chermak's "plan" still requires a 6.3% tax increase.

That's how deep the hole is, and Chermak — actively and passively — helped dig it. What Chermak's "budget" lacks in accuracy and acumen, it more than makes up for in irony. The former smiling sidekick to Jerry Notarianni and Debi Domenick proposes eliminating dozens of unfilled positions in the Office of Youth and Family Services, which fell to ruin on their watch.

Staff shortages continue to plague OYFS, which continues to operate with a downgraded license. Not only would Chermak's proposed cuts further cripple a vital department, the cost of most of the positions are 80% reimbursed by the state. Chermak's cuts would save county taxpayers next to nothing at the eternal expense of his most vulnerable constituents and the overworked, underpaid employees who serve them.

Unhappy taxpayers and unserious politicians who insist government should be run like a business understand neither business nor government. Businesses exist to generate profit, period. A government run like a business does not fund social services, public health advocacy, public transportation, law enforcement, incarceration, housing for senior citizens and a host of other government responsibilities too expensive to ever be cost-effective.

A business that plunders tomorrow to pay for today goes under. The Sunoco I mismanaged is an empty parking lot now. When governments are short on cash, they raise taxes, which is why it's better to have serious people in serious positions.

Unserious officials are empowered, enabled and emboldened by an unserious electorate. A politician who promises to maintain or elevate the standards of government services while swearing off tax increases is either lying or ignorant of basic economics. Often, it's both.

Knee-jerk negative reactions to tax increases are rarely proportional to the actual pain they inflict. I'm not happy about the hike, but it's hardly the gaping wound Laureen Cummings et. al. make it out to be. According to Sunday Times Staff Writer Jeff Horvath's exhaustive reporting, the proposed increase would raise tax bills for a typical property owner in Jessup by about $179; in Scranton by about $201; in Moscow by about $324; and in Clarks Summit by about $380. Jeff's calculations are based on the median residential assessed values in those municipalities; actual increases will vary based on a property owner's individual assessment.

A $380 annual increase amounts to about $7 per week. I know there are people out there struggling to make ends meet and any increase will make it harder. God bless you, but if you're in a situation where you might lose your house over an extra seven bucks a week, there are several county programs that can help.

I'll leave the knee-jerks with this: If you're this mad about a property tax hike, wait until you find out how tariffs work.