Masontown 2003 tentative budget unanimously passed
MASONTOWN – The borough council adopted a tentative 2003 budget totaling more than $2.1 million Tuesday night that does not appear to include a tax increase. Without much discussion, council voted 6-0 to adopt the spending plan, which has projected sewage fund expenditures of $563,500, projected water fund expenditures of $743,700 and projected general fund expenditures of $812,700. Council held a budget workshop Monday night in advance of Tuesday’s regular council meeting to go over the income and expenses for 2003.
According to the budget, the sewer fund has an anticipated surplus of $11,000, while the general fund has an anticipated deficit of $8,400. Those figures could change before the final budget is adopted sometime next month, particularly after the council voted to add Blaney Street to the list of water lines to be replaced this year.
At the council’s last meeting, members voted to replace lines on Westwood Avenue and High Street, but Council President Carole Daniels said the line on Blaney had a serious break last week and the line is one of the worst in the borough. Borough engineer Russ Mechling said the High Street project would cost $25,660, the Westwood replacement would be $14,800 and the High Street line replacement would cost $10,765.
After approving the addition of Blaney to the list of line replacements, Councilman Harry Lee, who also serves as finance committee chairman, said that action could have an effect on the budget.
“We’ll have to go back and re-adjust the budget,” he said. “That’s going to change the numbers quite a bit.”
The millage rate was 4.20 mills this year, but will be reduced to 0.926 mills as a result of the countywide property reassessment. Before meeting in executive session for personnel matters, none of the council members present said the proposed 2003 budget contained a tax increase.
Action taken after the executive session was not available as of press time. Councilman Frank McLaughlin was absent Tuesday.
In other business, the council spent 30 minutes meeting with James E. Corrin Jr. of Charter Communications, who was invited by council to help explain the rate increase for expanded basic service scheduled to take effect Sunday.
The rate for the service, which covers 49 channels, will rise $2.95 a month from $29.39 to $32.34 monthly. Corrin said the main reason for the increase is a continued rise in the amount of programming costs Charter has to pay cable networks to carry those networks on the system.
“Costs in that area have risen 28 percent over last year, which is the largest increase we have had to absorb in many, many years,” he said. “Rate increases are never user-friendly, certainly not to you and not to your constituents.”
Councilman Tom Loukota said many Masontown residents are elderly and living on fixed incomes and cannot continue to absorb rate increases. Fellow Councilman Joe Volansky said that since the council signed a 10-year contract with Charter, rate increases have been an annual occurrence.
Volansky encouraged Corrin to try and have Charter work out a plan to give the residents a break from rate increases at some point in the contract, or the borough may look elsewhere for a cable provider when the contract ends.
“We can’t be held hostage every year by these rate hikes,” he said. “If people want more options, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Daniels asked Corrin to see what he could do to help people in the borough see a lower rate. Corrin mentioned that the basic rate is $15.95 for 20 channels, and people 65 and older receive a 5-percent discount on basic service.