mmaroney@sungazette.com
A four-year contract for the Williamsport Bureau of Police Lodge 29 union narrowly passed Thursday in a 4-3 vote by City Council.
The main discussion point was the unionized police officers’ contract including raises of 1 percent next year, 2 percent the following year, 2 percent the year after and 3 percent in the final year. Concessions were made to employee contribution on health insurance, Damon R. Hagan, city police chief said. A copy of the contract was requested by the Sun-Gazette and was not provided as of press time.
Hagan said the city administration proposal was no increase next year. The union countered with a 1 percent increase next year.
It’s over but it’s not.
City Council passed a half-mill real estate tax increase and approved Mayor Derek Slaughter’s $29 million 2021 budget Thursday, but with an eye toward reopening the budget in January to see if further reductions to the size of tax millage increase can take place.
Council and the administration set the tax rate at 16.22 mills, but upon getting information from Norman Lubin, city solicitor, learned it had to before Feb. 15 to reopen, discuss options and adopt the reopened budget.
If nothing is done, the half-mill is $50 more per tax bill for households assessed at $100,000.
To reach a quarter-mill would require finding $217,000 more in reductions or a combination of revenue or cut in staff, Council President Randall J. Allison said.
Dec 18, 2020
City Council passed a half-mill real estate tax increase and approved Mayor Derek Slaughter’s $29 million 2021 budget Thursday, but with an eye toward reopening the budget in January to see if the size of the tax hike can further reduced.
Council and the administration set the tax rate at 16.22 mills, but upon getting information from Norman Lubin, city solicitor, learned they have until Feb. 15 to reopen, discuss options and adopt a revised budget. If nothing is done, the half-mill is $50 more per tax bill for households assessed at $100,000. To reach a quarter-mill would require finding $217,000 more in reductions, Council President Randall J. Allison said. Reaching a zero-tax-increase budget would mean $434,000 in reductions, he said.
mmaroney@sungazette.com
City Council is expected to tackle next year’s proposed $29 million budget in a remote meeting tonight. It remains unclear if council will adopt the proposed budget, but Council President Randall J. Allison said there is a consensus to get it done before the end of the year because if no budget is passed no money can be spent.
Mayor Derek Slaughter’s proposed budget carries a proposed 1-mill tax hike, and he and council members said that could be reduced further with discussions tonight.
One mill of real estate tax generates $860,000. A 1-mill tax increase would be $100 more for a house assessed at $100,000.
mmaroney@sungazette.com
Mayor Derek Slaughter had a hard time selling his idea to cut next year’s proposed $29 million budget by a half-mill, by using half of the account reserved for repairs to City Hall.
Last week, City Council asked Slaughter to find $434,000, or 0.5 mills of property tax, by cuts or by augmenting the city budget before Thursday’s council meeting.
Slaughter and Joseph Pawlak, city interim finance director, did that by coming up with a plan to take half of the $850,000 out of the account reserved for City Hall repairs, including accessibility improvements for the disabled community.
Slaughter offered the proposal to council’s finance committee Tuesday.