The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania gathered in the state Capitol on Jan. 28, 2026, to announce its members' priorities for 2026.
Jaxon White / WITF
Counties urge lawmakers to raise funding for 911, mental health, property reassessments
Pa. budget season kicks off next week with Gov. Josh Shapiro's annual address on Tuesday.
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Jaxon White/WITF
Jaxon White / WITF
The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania gathered in the state Capitol on Jan. 28, 2026, to announce its members' priorities for 2026.
The association representing Pennsylvania’s 67 counties is once again urging state lawmakers to increase the money they receive to help field emergency calls.
Every Pennsylvanian pays an extra $1.95 on their phone lines every month. Last year, the surcharge raised about $380 million statewide, and the money was portioned out among the counties.
But Snyder County Commissioner Joe Kantz, president of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said that amount is not enough to cover the costs.
“This is a service counties are proud to provide, but as technology evolves and costs rise, counties need a consistent and sustainable funding structure to continue fulfilling the responsibility,” Kantz said at a news conference in the state Capitol’s Main Rotunda on Wednesday morning.
Afterwards, Kantz said he and other county commissioners met with Gov. Josh Shapiro last week and asked him to raise the surcharge to $2.20 per line per month. This increase, Kantz said, is the top priority for county commissioners this year.
Shapiro, a first-term Democrat up for reelection this year, is slated to lay out his budget priorities in an address to lawmakers on Feb. 3. Reached for comment Wednesday, Shapiro spokesperson Alex Peterson said the governor will “have more to say about his proposal then.”
According to the association, the money raised through the fee only covered about 80% of counties’ 911 expenses last year. The revenue from an increased charge, the organization said, would go toward staffing, technology and improving the statewide Next Generation 911 system, a digital version intended to replace the traditional analog 911 infrastructure.
While the 911 surcharge is their top priority, Kantz was joined at the Capitol by county commissioners from across the Commonwealth to announce their association’s other two areas of focus this year: raises to the state’s funding of mental health programs and property reassessments.
‘At a breaking point’
Greene County Commissioner Betsy McClure said officials have made advancements in breaking the stigma associated with mental health.
“Unfortunately, the ratio between mental health awareness and investments in the mental health system is becoming dangerously disproportionate,” she said.
Over the past three years, Shapiro and Pennsylvania lawmakers have put an additional $60 million toward county-based mental health funding. This year, county commissioners are seeking a $40 million increase.
“Counties have stretched the limited state funding to serve as many residents as possible, but we are now at a breaking point,” McClure said.
McClure said the extra money would be used to reduce delays for residents seeking aid and help counties fill the ongoing workforce gap.
Huntingdon County Commissioner Jeff Thomas said the group also wants the state to be more involved with how counties reassess property values within their borders and keep track of the associated data.
“Infrequent rate assessments can result in mixed economic development opportunities and challenges and maintaining equitable property values,” Thomas said.
The commissioners are asking lawmakers to create a statewide grant program to offset the costs and fund improvements to the counties’ assessment processes.
Missing from the county commissioners’ priorities are some long-sought reforms to Pennsylvania’s election process. Last year, reforming the state’s mail ballot system was one of their top priorities. The system was adopted in 2019, and commissioners wanted lawmakers to change it to allow for pre-canvassing of ballots, adjust “unrealistic mail-in ballot application deadlines,” and address the growing demand for people who use a mail-in ballot to vote early and in-person.
“It is still a top priority, just not one of the top three that made it to the very, very top this year,” Kantz said. “It’s so important.”
Continual budget impasses
Pennsylvania is just a few months past the passage of its most recent state budget, which came four months later than required — an impasse that stretched counties’ wallets so thin that some sought loans to continue operating. With these loans come interest payments that taxpayers will be forced to pay.
Since 2014, only four annual state budgets have been signed into law before the June 30 deadline — none under Shapiro. And this year, wide disagreements between leaders in both chambers could push lawmakers to overshoot it again.
Kantz said he’s optimistic the pressure of 2026 being an election year will incentivize lawmakers to hit their mark.
“I’ve never once saw a county that did not pass their budget on time,” Kantz said. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask that our state follow suit and do the same thing.”
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