Proposed Ford City Budget Includes Tax Decrease
Ford City Borough Council’s 2016 proposed funding plan is open to inspection by local residents at the Borough office for the next 30 days.
by Jonathan Weaver
Ford City residents may be able to keep some of their hard-earned money in 2016 if the proposed budget passes next month.
The proposed $8 million budget passed by council members during Monday’s regular council meeting includes a tax decrease, Borough Manager Eden Ratliff said.
“The proposed budget that was passed at (Monday) night’s council meeting reduces taxes by three-quarters of a mill,” Ratliff said. “Those three-quarters come out of the General Fund.
“We reduced our overall revenue, and we’re looking at areas where we can reduce our overall expenses. One of the advantages is that we’re able to carry over a little bit of money from 2015 that we did not spend into 2016 to offset that.”
The 2016 funding plan includes more than $287,500 for public safety – enough for a chief and three part-time officers.
“It’s a 24/7 police budget,” Ratliff said.
There is no staff cuts proposed.
In the proposed budget, residents would pay 16.65 mills in local taxes – 11 toward the General Fund, 2.6 for fire apparatus,1.9 toward street lighting, one mill toward the public library along 4th Avenue and .15 toward the non-uniform pension fund.
Public utility fund expenses, generated through the water rates, are also proposed to go unchanged.
However, outgoing councilman Jerry Miklos was the lone opposition Monday night before the motion passed 3-1.
“I think there’s other areas there we can cut,” Miklos said. “We should do whatever we can to make this easier for the taxpayers. We’re having more-and-more people struggling to pay taxes.
“I think we can cut it a little closer.”
Before Monday night’s approval, Borough Council had a little less than $77,000 remaining in their General Fund, but allocated more than half of that toward a John Deere mower and $500 toward the Armstrong County Tourist Bureau’s fundraising to designate the Allegheny River as a water trail.
Ratliff said the John Deere purchase will help the Borough save money in grass cutting and lawn maintenance next year – but that savings will go into Street Department.
“We’re alleviating time so we can reallocate time toward other things the Street Department needs to be addressing,” Ratliff said.
Ratliff also hopes council members will consider purchasing a smaller backhoe and adding/upgrading the trio of police vehicles. Nearly $850,000 was set aside for the Street Department budget – which includes all street wages, supplies and maintenance and flood mitigation.
All current council members were able to work on the 2016 funding plan.
Monday’s vote allows the budget to be advertised and made available to local resident for 30 days. According to that timeline, the final budget could be adopted at the next regular meeting.
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