California approves tentative 2017 budgets
CALIFORNIA — Borough council approved tentative general, sewer fund and highway aid fund budgets for 2017 at its regular meeting Thursday, keeping the line on taxes steady with regard to millage but warning that some residents may see a change in taxes to be paid due to Washington County’s countywide property reassessment.
Council settled on a tentative balanced general fund budget for 2017 of $2,033,676 and a tentative balanced 2017 highway aid fund budget of $269,989. Council also approved a tentative sewer fund budget with revenues totaling $1,959,700 and expenses totaling $1,958,743.
Council authorized advertising its 2017 tax ordinance with a total of 3.3 mills, with 2.65 mills designated for general purposes, 0.3 mills for fire service and 0.19 mills each for streets and recreation.
Patsy Alfano, council president, explained that council’s tax mills totaled 35 in 2016, attributing the change in millage to an approximately 10 percent increase in property values resulting from the countywide property reassessment, the county’s first since 1981.
“This pretty much, to the best of our ability, remains a tax-neutral budget without a tax increase as far as the millage goes,” Councilman Chip Glab said. “But individuals may see a change in their tax paid from prior years because of the countywide assessment. There may be some slight differences there — some people may be paying more, some people less, some people the same.”
In other business, Alfano reported that council had been prepared to approve a project for which it would allocate Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding but could not because a manufacturer for the street lighting project council anticipated moving ahead with was no longer in business.
Alfano said he got a “panicked” call from project engineer Senate Engineering on Thursday afternoon informing him of the defunct status of the manufacturer, which he could not recall the name of.
“So we grossly underestimated the cost of the 2016 project,” Alfano explained, adding that the expected cost for the 2016 CDBG project would be $130,000 to $140,000 when only approximately $80,000 was budgeted.
Consequently, a portion of the borough’s 2017 CDBG grant money will have to make up the difference.
“Then we’re going to have to see how many lights we can retrofit,” Alfano said, adding that council will have to approve a CDBG project at a continued meeting to be held Dec .19 at 6 p.m., when council is expected to adopt its proposed 2017 budgets.
Alfano said at last month’s regular borough council meeting that 2017 CDBG funding would amount to approximately $84,000 and must be spent by the end of the calendar year 2017.
In other business, council approved paying $4,900 to West Brownsville borough to cover half of a $9,800 paving project for a 240-foot section of Wilson Road from Route 88 to a nearby stream, since California owns property on one side of the road and West Brownsville owns the other side.
“It’s not a very neighborly thing for West Brownsville to send us a bill,” Councilman Richard Encapera said, as he and other council members indicated they were not consulted about the expense.
Alfano said California borough had been previously consulted “a couple of months ago” on the project.
Council approved the $4,900 payment after agreeing to add a letter with its payment warning that this will be the last time it pays a bill to West Brownsville unless there is a cooperative agreement between both boroughs in advance, at Councilman Jon Bittner’s suggestion. The approval came in a 5-2 vote, with members Ryan Encapera and Paula Gutosky voting against it.
Council also authorized the advertisement of its meeting dates for 2017. The body will continue holding its regular meetings on the second Thursday of each month and its committee meetings on the first Thursday of each month.