LEWISBURG — If county leaders are akin to hot air balloon pilots — knifing off a sandbag here, firing up the burner there — then today’s wickedly high gas and energy prices are the lead anchor threatening to bring entire budgets crashing to the ground.

Load-lightening has practically become an art in Snyder County, where fuel costs are up a staggering 40 percent from last year, said Joe Kantz, chairman of the Snyder County commissioners. The county’s budgetary bloodhounding has revealed sandbags in unexpected places, he said.

“It’s the little things that add up,” said Joe Kantz, Snyder County Commissioner Chairman. They’ve told the county’s 250 employees to use printers only when necessary and not to print in color unless they absolutely need to.

“We spend $10,000 a year just in ink cartridges,” Kantz said.

Kantz and his colleagues recently retooled the county’s cell phone plan, saving themselves $7,200 a month.

In Northumberland County, leaders are looking at cutting transportation costs by making better use of technology. Commissioner Frank Sawicki said his county has, among other cost-saving initiatives, implemented video conferencing for criminal hearings to help reduce the number of trips needed for prisoner transportation.

Union County Commissioner Preston Boop said leaders there are working with SEDA-Council of Governments to make county buildings more energy efficient.

“We need to alter our energy bills with these rising costs,” Boop said.

All three commissioners discussed county goings-on in broad brush strokes Friday at the jointly-organized Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce and Central Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce legislative forum in Lewisburg. But cutting costs against rising energy prices highlighted every speech.

Commissioner Sawicki pointed out that counties — which get most of their revenue from real estate — typically don’t have much budgetary wiggle room, meaning rising expenses hit them hard.

“Cutting costs anywhere we can is on everyone’s mind because we have to eat these rising fuel and energy prices,” he said.

n E-mail comments to dgessel@dailyitem.com.