About three dozen county individuals and companies have popped up on a list for unpaid unemployment taxes.

The list was released last week by the state Department of Labor & Industry. The state says a lien was filed against those entities with unpaid tax obligations.

The Warren County Commissioners appeared on that list.

The lien total: 88 cents.

L&I Secretary said the information has always been public but that the department is making it more easily accessible “because we believe Pennsylvania workers and taxpayers deserve to know when labor laws are willfully thwarted and who’s doing it,” said Secretary Jennifer Berrier in a statement. “No employer or business owner is above the law. We hope this list compels employers to meet their legal obligations under our laws.”

Warren County Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said the disclosure did just the opposite.

“In my opinion, this latest effort on the part of the Commonwealth to be ‘transparent’ has only furthered to reinforce the public’s impression of bureaucratic incompetence,” he said.

He said the county was never notified about the 88-cent lien but “there remains about $10,000 in fraudulent claims against Warren County that Labor & Industry have yet to resolve after more than six months.”

The county doesn’t deny that an error was made on its end. They say the lien originated with unemployment claims in 2019 around when the state switched to a new system.

“Before Warren County was given access to the system,” a statement from the county said, “payments in the amount of about $15,000 went unpaid, perhaps due to staff turnover.”

The county, it claims, did not find out about that outstanding balance until the state filed a judgment with the county prothonotary’s office in May 2021. Officials arranged to make payment with the state and thought the matter was closed.

“As soon as we found out about the unpaid 88-cents, staff paid the remaining balance in full,” Lisa Hagberg, the county’s finance and administration director said. “The sum of less than a dollar was probably residual interest.”

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said the county has “every intention of paying legitimate unemployment compensation claims in a timely manner” but asked Labor & Industry “to work with us and notify us of issues in a timely manner.”

The county says there have been about a dozen fraudulent claims made against the county in the last year and three remain unresolved. They say counties across the state report similar challenges.

“Having met with our staff, the Commissioners have every confidence that Human Resources has rectified the immediate problem,” Commissioner Tricia Durbin said, “and will continue to attempt to cooperate with the Commonwealth to rectify the fraudulent claims.”