FRACKVILLE — The residents of Frackville should expect to see their real estate taxes remain the same with the Frackville Borough Council approving the 2016 tentative budget at Wednesday’s meeting.
The borough council voted 7-0 for the proposed revenue and spending plan that keeps real estate taxes at 17.08 mills. Each mill brings in about $45,000.
Councilman Peter Zuber, chairman of the Finance Committee, made the motion to for the budget’s tentative adoption. Zuber said the tentative budget includes total estimated revenue of $2,147,768, up from $2,072,440 in the 2015 budget.
Zuber said expenditures are estimated at $2,141,539, an increase over the 2015 budget of $2,026,867. The estimated surplus is $6,229. The budget will be on public display for 10 days after the legal advertisement reaches the newspaper.
Councilman Bradley Gotshall seconded Zuber’s motion and had a comment about the budget.
“I’d just like to add for the residents that this is the first time in the five years that I’m on council that we went into the budget meetings with a surplus,” Gotshall said. “That is thanks to the council’s very diligent work in watching the budget and making sure everything is spent appropriately. I want to say that we are in decent financial shape, and that’s a good thing.”
Council President Ronald Jordan agreed that creating the new budget was less of a struggle than in previous years.
“I’m on council for eight years. I didn’t attend the first budget meeting, but when I came to the second one it was pretty much a done deal. It was pretty quick,” Jordan said. “What Brad is trying to say is that we didn’t look at the budget and worry about if we’re going to have to cut this or what do we have to do to cut program. I’ve been sitting here where we’re deciding on our contribution to the library versus do we keep the pool open.”
Jordan continued, “We had those things on the table, and there is no doubt in the last four years about the hard work that council has done to get us to the point that we didn’t have to haggle much and have the heartburn to eliminate things in the borough. Instead, even with the pool where it’s at, we are still able to fund the $25,000 that we’re putting aside for the pool to have a new pool.”
Jordan praised the cooperative efforts to develop a good budget plan.
“It is really the hard work of the people who are up here that makes my job as president a lot easier because of everybody taking on their role in their committees very seriously and did their due diligence to make sure that the residents of Frackville are being taken care of and we’re not raising taxes,” Jordan said.
The work in keeping the line on spending helps everyone, but particularly senior citizens on fixed incomes, Jordan said.
“This council has done a very good job doing that for the Frackville citizens, so I applaud everybody who has helped me in my position as president,” he said.
The budget will be formally adopted at a special meeting at 5 p.m. Dec. 23 in the municipal building.