PA Counties Association Talks Priorities: 9-1-1 Funding, Data Centers & More

(The Center Square) – The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, known as CCAP, is an organization founded in 1886 that serves as the “unifying” voice for the Keystone State’s 67 counties.

Kyle Kopko, who serves as CCAP’s Executive Director, oversees all of the association’s divisions, which not only represent county commissioners but also county council members in home rule counties, along with their chief clerks or chief administrators and the solicitors.

The organization is tasked with providing information and guidance on legislation, education, and a variety of other topics to help maintain the services assigned to the counties.

According to its website, CCAP says it stands “firmly against state and federal actions that limit fiscal, administrative or programmatic authority over those developed locally.”

At the beginning of the year, the organization laid out a series of legislative priorities. 

After the state budget was finalized last month, CCAP touted some victories, such as investments into the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, crisis stabilization centers, and transportation infrastructure. However, they expressed disappointment that its “two most pressing priorities: increased county mental health funding and sustainable 911 funding” weren’t tackled. 

Kopko spoke to The Center Square on Tuesday to go over the organization’s most recent conference, the biggest issues facing county commissioners in Pennsylvania, the evolving conversation around data centers, and a look ahead.

Question: CCAP’s 140th annual conference and trade show wrapped up last week. What were your biggest takeaways from your latest gathering?

Kopko: Well, it was a great opportunity to share best practices and learn some more, particularly about data centers.

That seems to be a topic that many of our counties are seeking to address in cooperation with their municipal partners. 

We also had some excellent presentations on property reassessment, emergency management, particularly opportunities for stabilization of EMS and ambulance services. 

We’ve also heard about some cooperative programming for juvenile detention centers and a whole range of other topics as well. 

We also debated and discussed our policy platform. 

Usually, the annual conference is the venue in which most of our policy resolutions are considered for inclusion in the county platform. 

So, it’s a document stating the policy preferences and positions of CCAP, and we passed a number of resolutions, 33, in all: Anything from early voting to regular property reassessment, and a whole slew of other topics as well. 

Question: I’d like to zero in on data centers, if you don’t mind for a minute, it was something you mentioned there in your previous answer. 

So, what were the thoughts that you heard from county commissioners, primarily in regards to data centers, because we’ve seen that it’s become a much more prevalent topic in Pennsylvania and beyond over the past year? 

Kopko: I think everyone realizes that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work in Pennsylvania. 

Every community is different. 

Every county is different. 

So, the infrastructure needs the resources available may or may not make a particular type of development well suited for a given locale. 

And in Pennsylvania, as some readers may know, that municipal governments have the primary say over land use.

So, even though counties don’t necessarily have that ability to control, say, zoning like a municipality, a township, or a borough or a city would, a lot of their planning offices are tasked with helping to plan for the future and where this development may occur and what that means for the entire county. 

So, there was a lot of discussion about what are the energy requirements of data centers, what are the water usage requirements for data centers, as well. 

So, just trying to better understand those types of needs, so county commissioners can work with their municipal partners and state level agencies as they determine whether data center developments will occur, and how they will occur within their communities. 

Question: U.S. Senator Dave McCormick, Congressman G.T. Thompson, Treasurer Stacy Garrity spoke at the conference last week, in addition to Gov. Josh Shapiro delivering remarks via video: What was the main message from those lawmakers to those attending the conference? 

Kopko: There was a consistent theme of the importance of cooperation at the local, state, and federal levels, and I think that’s something that was very well received by our county commissioners. 

We’re all on the same team here. 

We all want to make sure that Pennsylvania is stronger for the future, and we’re able to compete relative to other states, and in order to do that effectively, we need to not only recognize we’re serving the exact same constituents, but we’re all able to play a role in moving Pennsylvania forward together. 

So, I think that that was a key takeaway from all those speakers. 

Question: What would county commissioners across the state specifically like to see from the federal government, and as well with the state government? 

Kopko: For the federal government, a wide range of policy issues. 

Obviously, emergency preparedness funds, disaster mitigation funds, things like that, from the federal government are going to be increasingly important in Pennsylvania going forward.  

Also, as data center development does occur, ensuring that there is federal support for things like the resiliency of the power grid and making sure that there are those, you know, important pieces of critical infrastructure in place to ensure that we’re not straining resources and placing an undue burden on local residents. 

At the state level, we’re pretty reliant as a county on state funding and the timely passage of a state budget. 

Obviously the state budget again was late this year. 

It wasn’t nearly as protracted as it was in the 2025 budget impasse, but there’s some concern among members that this is becoming a normal part of Pennsylvania’s political culture, and that creates a fair amount of uncertainty for counties to plan going forward. 

So, there was a lot of discussion about that. 

Also, in terms of 911 funding, that’s our number one priority for this year, and we were hopeful that there would be some language inserted into the code bill after the budget was enacted to provide for increased 911 funding through the 911 surcharge, but that did not materialize despite having outreach from scores of counties and municipalities to emphasize the importance of 911 funding.

Counties are shouldering an increasingly larger share of that, and that’s obviously a critical service that we cannot scrimp on. 

It needs to work without fail every time, and if state funds aren’t sufficient, then counties have to fund 911 through their general operating funds. 

Alternately, that means that property taxpayers are on the hook for those types of payments. 

Question: Do you think there’s a realistic chance that sustainable 911 funding could be signed ahead of next year’s budget, or is it likely that won’t be addressed by the state government until, I guess, budget negotiations next spring and summer? 

Kopko: It remains to be seen. 

So, it could still come to fruition through a standalone bill, that may or may not happen before the end of this legislative session, but it’s something that we are going to keep pushing for this year. 

And if last year’s budget process holds any keys, that’s whenever the 911 renewal was reauthorized as part of that negotiation. 

It was actually included in the fiscal code after the primary appropriations bill was enacted. 

So, it’s possible that for the next budget, the fiscal code could have language regarding the 911 surcharge. 

Question: CCAP has also emphasized the importance for the need of increased county mental health funding. Where does that stand currently right now? 

Kopko: It was not included in part of the last budget for the state, and our members were pretty disappointed by that. 

Demand is steady. 

Our counties consistently serve north of half a million residents every year, depending on the year, it’s sometimes 700,000 or more individuals. 

And for a variety of reasons, those costs aren’t going down. 

We’re still seeing a number of individuals who have needs year-round, 365 days a year, and counties have to be there, or their third-party providers need to be there to offer those critical services. 

And it’s obviously a job that’s difficult in attracting and retaining that workforce is going to become even more important in the coming years, particularly in our sparsely populated and rural counties.

Question: So, the state budget was signed last month. 

In an earlier answer, you had mentioned a concern from those attending the conference was that the budget was late, although, as you mentioned, it was not nearly as late as the previous year. 

Can you talk about some of your other takeaways from the state budget that was signed last month?

Kopko: We largely were level funded, and that equates to, with inflation costs included, a decrease in funding overall. 

The buying power goes down, and so counties are grappling with these tighter and tighter budgets, and they’re doing everything they can to avoid property tax increases because all of our members are very concerned about the use of public dollars. 

They’re good stewards of taxpayer dollars, and they want to make sure that if we’re asking for something from the state, it’s not a nice to have type of funding stream. 

We’re providing the nuts and bolts of government here. 

We want to make sure that we’re asking for exactly what’s needed to help our counties go forward. 

Question: CCAP has also called for a “modernization” of Pennsylvania’s property reassessment system. What would this specifically entail?

Kopko: So, first of all, it’s important to note that a lot of folks misunderstand what reassessment is. 

So, I have to offer this as a first comment before getting at the nuts and bolts of what’s in our policy position. 

Many people think that whenever we go through the reassessment process, it means a tax increase, and that’s not the case. 

This is really about ensuring that the values, the data, is accurate, and that has a lot of implications for economic development. 

Also, just long-term planning if those data are flawed or out of date. 

So, that’s really what we’re focused on here: is the ability to have regular reassessments, so that way counties have up-to-date property information to ensure that property taxes are allocated in a fairer manner. 

And so, what we enacted as part of our policy-making process is a framework for regular property reassessment, where in the coming years we would begin with a staggered approach to require at the state level regular reassessments. 

It would begin with a 10-year cycle, and then after that 10-year period, we would move to an eight-year cycle, and then after that eight-year period, it would be a permanent six-year rotation by which counties would regularly conduct property reassessment. 

And it’s important to note that Pennsylvania is the last state in the country to not have a regularly required cycle for property reassessment. 

So, we’re trying to catch up with the best practices of our other states in the country, because otherwise this leads to, as I mentioned before, unfair distribution of the tax burden, and that’s what we’re really trying to get at here, and also provide certainty for individuals moving into an area or businesses looking to make an investment in a given county, they’ll have assurance that they’re going to have a fair and regular property reassessment cycle whenever they do purchase parcels in a given county. 

Question: Final question here for you. 

So, in January, CCAP laid out its legislative priorities for the year. 

Right now, we’re about halfway through August. 

I mean, at this point in time, is there still hope that legislators can accomplish some of those particular priorities before the year ends?  

And do you suspect that next year’s legislative priorities will be similar to the previous year, or do you think, with the way data centers have become such an evolving issue, that may emerge as one of the priorities to address for the following year? 

Kopko: To the first question, what are the odds of something happening before the end of the year: A lot really depends on the legislative calendar, and if we are able to keep the dates that are scheduled. 

Obviously there aren’t as many legislative calendar days as there used to be in previous sessions, so that remains to be seen. 

But generally speaking, CCAP has long championed human services supports, and, you know, certainly mental health funding would be part of that, and that’s been a legislative priority of ours for more than a decade now. 

And 911 funding has also been a priority for a number of years as well. 

Beyond that, it’s too early to say what the membership will consider for other priorities going into the next year, certainly data centers could be a topic that they wish to consider, but we’ll have to wait and see. 

That’ll all be determined by the membership at our fall conference.

This story was first published by the The Center Square, a statehouse and statewide news news organization.