SHENANDOAH - The borough council voted Thursday to approve the 2013 tentative budget of $2,986,125 with no tax increase, but did increase the sewer fee by $6 per quarter.
The tentative budget adoption was the only agenda item for the special meeting.
Real estate taxes will remain at 25 mills, with each mill equivalent to $33,000 in tax revenue. General fund revenue is estimated at $1,872,325, with sewer revenue at $955,875 and highway aid revenue at $157,925. Revenue and expenditures in all funds are balanced.
Borough Manager Joseph L. Palubinsky explained some of the expenses that changed since last year. There is a contractual increase in salaries for uniform and non-uniform employees at 2.5 percent for next year. There is a substantial increase in health care premiums, though Palubinsky said it has been reduced significantly.
"Our health care increase is showing as 6.9 percent," Palubinsky said. "What we are proposing to do is increase our self-insured deductible to control the cost. Otherwise, the increase was projected to be 19.8 percent in 2013. What we are also going to do is search out other health care providers and possibly switching vendors, of course with the consent of the employees. We were able to fortunately offset some of those increases due to a workers compensation premium deduction in 2013."
Palubinsky then spoke about the sewer rate increase of $24 per year, which brings the quarterly rate for residential customers from $66 to $72.
"Some of the issues that we're dealing with to cause the increase is that our plant is 35 years old, we're dealing with new state regulatory requirements, such as permit fees, regulations and increased testing requirements, and an increase in sludge disposal costs," Palubinsky said. "We're also making the attempt to do a lot of the maintenance at the sewage treatment plant with the employees that we have and who have done a good job."
Councilman Robert Shortt motioned for adoption, with Councilman Raymond Nestor making the second. The vote was unanimous.
The next regular meeting of borough council has been moved to 6 p.m. Dec. 20 at borough hall. The budget will be formally adopted and general business will be conducted.