Council voted unanimously on the tentative budget, and will vote again on the final budget at their December regular meeting after public inspection.
By Jonathan Weaver
Kittanning Borough residents are not projected to have a tax increase for the second year in a row – and they will also save some money annually.
Kittanning Borough Council unanimously passed a nearly-$2.65 million budget plan for 2015 – one that keeps the tax rate at 27.5 mills and eliminates the per capita tax altogether.
Borough Council President Randy Cloak was happy to announce the news.
“The best part of the budget I think is that we are proposing to eliminate the per-capita tax for the residents of Kittanning Borough,” Cloak said. “This is a tax we’ve had concerns with how it was collected.”
In 2014, $14,000 was budgeted to be collected, but only about $11,000 received in the latest figures.
“It generates roughly about a half-mill of taxes through means other than property taxes, but as we worked through the budget, we’ve experienced some savings through insurance and other things,” Cloak said.
With the savings incurred, council members allocated $23,000 more in funding toward a new police cruiser and $33,000 in major equipment likely a pick-up truck to be utilized by Street Department employees.
“We have three cruisers – the oldest cruiser always costs the most for maintenance and is-most frequently out-of-service. The last thing we would want to see is a police officer not be able to respond to a call because a police car is out of commission,” Cloak said. “I’d like for us to budget for half of a car every year so the oldest car would then be only six years old and you cycle through.”
Chief Bruce Mathews also shared concerns of making sure the equipment is reliable all the time in the future.
A new backhoe and chipper will also be purchased next year through a grant Councilwoman Pryde acquired for the municipality.
$20,000 was also set aside to continue the borough blight elimination.
Borough Council also unanimously agreed to spend about $60 total to purchase a duplex on Woodward Avenue from the county repository and make their total more than a dozen properties.
The Finance Committee is made up of Committee Chair Wilbur Stitt, Councilwomen Kim Fox and Joie Pryde. Council President Cloak is able to sit on any committee of council as well and did so for the budget.
Councilwoman Fox made the motion for the tentative budget approval.
“I’m really impressed by it – we had an opportunity to have a committee this week and go over it line-by-line,” Fox said. “I think it’s the best budget I’ve seen since I’ve been on Council. We’re close to getting very, very accurate numbers.”
Finance Committee Chair Stitt also agreed with the budget outlook
“I think we all have to be fiscally-responsible for how this borough runs as this committee,” Stitt said. “That’s the way you got to do it, and try to give some relief back to the people. Nobody’s done that for a while and it’s overdue.
“Hopefully in the future, we can do even better. It’s all about the people
Authorization was also made to file for a tax anticipation loan if needed. That vote was cast 7-1, with Councilman David Croyle in opposition.
The last tax increase – of three mills - went into effect January 1, 2012. Cloak has still seen taxes double since the 1990’s when he started on council and aimed not to increase them anymore.
There will be no garbage collection Tuesday due to Veterans’ Day , Thursday, November 27 due to Thanksgiving Day or Monday, December 1 due to the first day of hunting season.
Unlike the 2013 budget – which laid off a street worker and forced Codes Officer Rick McMillen to part-time – there are no layoffs forecast in the tentative budget.
McMillen will stay at four days – 32 hours per week – while Parking Meter Attendant Amanda King will see her service increased to 25 hours per week at the discretion of chief Mathews and with a per hour wage increase.
Through financial numbers provided under Chief Mathews latest police report, King has already collected more money from parking tickets than were collected by police officers in all of 2013. That prompted Borough Council to estimate $50,000 in collections coming in 2015.
The budget will be advertised for public inspection until a final vote is taken at the December 1st council meeting.