County taxpayers will not see a millage increase in 2022.

The county commissioners at their Wednesday meeting approved a 2022 county budget with expenditures totaling $253.6 million.

Next year's budget is significantly higher than the current $189 million in expenditures, which county officials attribute to the spending of the millions in federal grants received through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) grant, American Relief Plan Act and other funding received by the county and its various departments during the coronavirus pandemic.

Included in the federal funding received by the county is $13 million in emergency rental assistance program funds, $36 million in Emergency Solutions grants, plus Community Development Block Grants and others, said Ann Brown, the county's budget and human services finance director.

The 2022 general fund is listed at $81.7 million, which also is a significant increase over the current general fund of $69.7 million.

Brown said revenue losses of about $10 million from 2019 to 2020 can be taken from the county's American Rescue Plan grant and placed in the general fund.

She said that amount will be transferred to the capital budget for projects being discussed in the county.

“That's why the budget looks significantly larger this year than in past years,” said Brown.

Another revenue stream in the budget is the county prison's agreement with federal marshals and six counties to house prisoners for a daily fee.

Leslie Osche, commissioners chairwoman, said in November the county earned about $3 million in additional revenue this year from that program.

The commissioners voted to accept $9.523 million from the state's proposed $1.07 billion settlement with several opioid manufacturers.The defendants in the proposed settlement include McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, Amerisource Bergen Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals.A result of the settlement would be the creation of the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust, which would govern the disbursement of the settlement funds received by the state and the political subdivisions that were parties to the class action proceeding, which include Butler County.The trust would allocate 15% of the settlement amount to the state; 70% to local governments and 15% to the litigating subdivisions and agencies in the class action suit.The state should receive approximately $1.07 billion.The share of that going to the counties would be approximately $700 million, and the county's potential share would be about $9,523,238.