Butler County will need to withdraw $3.5 million from its fund balance to meet its 2026 budget expenditures, according to the county budget director.

During a finance report at the county commissioners meeting Wednesday, July 22, budget director Ann Brown reviewed year-to-date revenues and expenditures and talked about the fund balance.

She said $3.5 million, the same amount used to balance the 2025 budget in January of this year, will be needed to balance the 2026 budget.

She noted the 2025 budget included a $7.8 million fund balance carryover and this year’s budget includes an $8.9 million fund balance.

She also said $53.1 million in real estate taxes have been collected as of July 20.

That figure represents about 96% of the $55.1 million in real estate tax revenue anticipated in this year’s budget with a little more than five months remaining in the year.

• Commissioners approved a resolution providing Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, or TEFRA, approval for the Butler County General Authority to issue a tax exempt revenue note not to exceed $1.7 million to refinance a taxable line of credit used to buy, rehabilitate and install equipment for group housing for people with intellectual disabilities.

Valley Special Needs Programs Inc., known as Valley Community Services, operates the homes in Butler, Bedford, Somerset and Westmoreland counties. Two homes in Butler Township for four people are included in the refinancing. Valley Community Services will need TEFRA approvals from the other counties where the other homes are located, said Jamie Inferrera, a public finance attorney with Dinsmore and Shohl.

The refinancing does not commit the county to the debt obligation and is the second of what will probably be a four-part financing process, Inferrera said.

The commissioners approved a similar resolution in September that involved a $3 million note to refinance the mortgages of 10 Valley Community Service group homes in Butler, Armstrong, Bedford, Indiana, Mercer and Westmoreland counties. The authority is authorized to issue debt statewide.

• A project to build two restrooms accessible to people with disabilities at Laura Doerr Park in Jefferson Township is in its initial stages.

Commissioners approved an agreement with the township and Widmer Engineering for Widmer to engineer the restrooms and agreed to advertise for construction bids. One restroom will be located near the baseball field and the other one will be built near the soccer field.

Widmer, the Community Development Block Grant engineer, will be paid $8,000 from the township’s CDBG administrative funds.

• Commissioners adopted a resolution amending the Butler Transit Authority’s articles of incorporation to extend the life of the authority for 50 years.

The authority was created in September 1989 under the Municipality Authorities Act of 1945 as Butler Township — City Joint Municipal Transit Authority. The name was later changed to Butler Transit Authority.

The county joined as a member municipality through a February 2018 amendment and the township and city withdrew from the authority under an April 2018 amendment, leaving the county as the sole member municipality.

• A five-year contract renewal for inmate commissary in the Butler county Prison was approved with Oasis Management Systems, Inc. The new contract, which expires Oct. 1, 2031, provides the county with a 44% commission from all sales and a 35% commission from internet sales.

• Commissioners voted to hire Keffalas Real Estate, Inc. to appraise the former Butler Township district court office at 121 Sunnyview Circle for $750. The former court office has been vacant since district court was relocated to Fairground Hill Road in 2024. Commissioners said they want to explore options for the property.

• Commissioners awarded a $38,181 contract to Shields Asphalt Paving, of Valencia, to rebuild Saltarka Lane in Jackson Township using CDBG money. Shields submitted the lowest of four bids for the project.