Harrisburg, Pa. - Harrisburg Mayor-Elect Linda Thompson calls the city's incinerator debt her top priority.

"I believe that the incinerator crisis can and will be solved," she told abc27 reporter Andy Briggs during an exclusive interview, her first since Election Night.

Despite Thompson's confidence, coming up with a solution could be a struggle.  The incinerator is $280 million dollars in the hole. The Harrisburg Authority can't make the debt payments. The financial mess threatens the city's economic future.

Thompson is gathering as much information as she can before putting together the plan for a financial fix. One source is outgoing Mayor Stephen Reed. On Friday, Thompson and her team met with Reed behind closed doors for more than an hour.

"Listen, he's walking out of the door with a lot of intellectual property and I don't think all that intellectual property is left in a folder somewhere," she said. "So I'm going to try and get as much as I can from him before he leaves."

On Thursday, Thompson sat down with Gov. Ed Rendell and asked for state assistance.

A state-funded team of financial experts is already going over the city's books. The team's recommendations are expected in January.

"I want that report because it's going to have some key and sound recommendations. Just like I want a report back from the transition team. I don't want to go in there blind. I want the smartest and brightest people around me to tell me what they've seen," Thompson said.

The challenge is bringing the Dauphin County Commissioners on board. The county went to court earlier this year to stop a proposed rate hike at the incinerator. The commissioners remain dead set against having county residents pay for the city's mistakes.

Thompson hopes her thorough and thoughtful approach brings a breakthrough. "I believe that once the other elected officials see this, particularly the county commissioners, they will be less likely to be as combative and divisive toward us and not make me their target.  But to be more of a partner in this. Because if this fails for the city, it fails for the region."

City residents already pay some of the highest garbage fees in the country. But, at this point, Thompson said she can't rule out the possibility they'll go even higher.

"Tough decisions will have to be made," she said. "If some of those recommendations include raising property taxes at a minimum and other utility rates at a minimum, if it's on the table I'll have to look at those and I couldn't ignore them. I would have to do all I could do to present it in a very user-friendly way to the taxpayers. We owe it to them."

Tough decisions indeed, likely to be made during Thompson's first few months in office.

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