Canonsburg to vote on $4.36 Million Budget Monday

council Monday will formally ratify its $4.36 million 2011 spending plan, which is expected to include a 1-mill tax increase.

The preliminary budget was approved last month by a 6-2 vote. Councilmen George Coleman and Paul Sharkady cast the dissenting votes. They offered no explanation of their no votes. Councilman Michael Kazmarksi was absent.

Councilman Rich Russo, who heads the finance committee, had recommended the 1-mill increase and added it will equate to an approximate $13-jump in real estate taxes next year for a resident who owns a home assessed at $30,000. One mill generates about $45,000 in the borough.

He had explained that the millage increase would help cover an expected $200,000 shortfall – a deficit that is also being bridged through one-time funding streams such as revenue from the borough's nonsurface drilling lease with Southpointe-based natural gas producer Range Resources.

Borough manager Terry Hazlett said another budget hurdle was a more than 20 percent hike in health care rates for its police department.

The budget includes an earmark for two new public works trucks. Hazlett said the department's two 1995 pickup trucks were damaged last February when the region was blanketed with more than a foot of snow.

He said the borough will spend $25,000 for the next five years to pay for the two new trucks. The other expenditures, Hazlett said, are expected to cost about $40,000.

The 2011 budget also includes funding for police radio and computer equipment, increased funding for salt and snow removal and funding to cover an expected pension shortfall.

Council is also expected to formally ratify the Canonsburg-Houston Joint Authority's $1.65 million spending plan for 2011. That budget includes no rate increase.

Both the borough and municipal authority budgets have been on public display for the past month, as required by state law.

In other business, council is also expected to vote on a resolution that would authorize a 1-percent employee contribution to the police pension fund. It will be the first time police will make such a contribution.