MILFORD, PA — They haven’t received any state money for six months, they’re down to dipping into savings and year-end surplus to keep things running and they don’t know if they’re going to get through January and February without borrowing.

Despite all that, the Pike County Commissioners last week presented a $39 million balanced 2016 budget, calling for $1.2 million in new expenditures and no increase in the overall tax millage rate.

It may sound like smoke and mirrors, but it does work out. Where does the money come from?

The Commonwealth owes Pike about $2 million now, which is expected to arrive sometime in the new year. Some of those 2015 revenues are being rolled into the new budget.

Property values are recovering, so there is more value to tax. Property values are projected at $2.2 million, more than doubling the 2014-15 increase.

The overall 2016 millage amounts to 18.54 mills, which is unchanged from the last two years. The change is in where it’s going.

Tax millage is accounted in three columns: the county budget, debt service and support for the Scenic Rural Character Preservation program (SRCP).

The county recently refinanced all of its debt, prompting savings of up to $280,000 this year, another $99,000 in 2016, creating an 18.5% or .5 mill drop in budgeted debt service millage.

Pike is dropping the millage supporting the (SRCP) program by 27%, some .08 mills.

The SRCP program and debt services millage savings have been tacked onto the millage supporting the struggling county budget, increasing it from 15.54 to 16.12 mills.

Releasing the budget to the media on December 9, the commissioners said that none of the recent county financial issues would have arisen without the state’s budget impasse.

Commissioners Chair Rich Caridi, a Republican, said the Republican Legislature presented Democrat PA Gov. Tom Wolf with a balanced budget, which he vetoed.

Commissioner Karl Wagner, a Democrat, said that Wolf wants to reduce the state’s accumulated long-term debt.

One study estimates that debt at $53 billion. PA Gov. Tom Wolf wants new taxes to raise new revenues. The legislature doesn’t want to pass new taxes.

Still, Caridi said Wolf might have used a line-item veto and prevented shortfalls that impact social services programs, which serve populations most in need.

“It’s leverage,” Commissioner Matt Osterberg said. “…a big hammer to hold over everybody’s heads.”

In the meantime, Caridi said Pike is continuing all existing programs and no layoffs are planned.