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No tax hike in Tyrone prelim budget

TYRONE — Borough Council this week approved a tentative 2018 budget that calls for no tax increases.

The budget predicts that 2018 general fund expenditures, including capital expenditures, will total $3.4 million, with revenues falling short of that by $964,000.

The budget calls for making up that $964,000 operational deficit by tapping the borough’s projected $1.8 million cash savings — the unassigned fund balance — at the end of this year, said Borough Manager Ardean Latchford.

Because of the borough’s perennial conservative budgeting, the expectation is that frugality on spending and better revenues than projected will eliminate most or all of that deficit in actuality by the end of 2018, Latchford said.

Thus, the borough will probably not need to dip far, if at all, into its savings.

A rolling operational budget deficit that does not reflect the more balanced reality is traditional in the borough, which is in good financial condition, according to Latchford’s budget narrative.

The 2017 budget — adopted last December — predicted a similar-sized $924,000 operational deficit, which will be eliminated, and then some, when the actual figures are totaled, according to borough officials.

Projected actual revenues will exceed the budgeted amount by $45,000 by the end of this year, according to the narrative.

That was made possible by better-than-predicted revenues for Act 511 taxes; license, permit and franchise fees; interest earnings; and miscellaneous revenues, according to the narrative.

Projected actual expenses for this year will be lower than the budgeted amount of $1.08 million, said Finance Director Shannon Wilson.

Helping to make this possible is regular monitoring of expenses and careful attention to the best prices, according to Wilson.

Expenses for 2018 will include $55,000 for the Intermunicipal Relations Committee, which has asked for that amount from all four participating municipalities to make up for state funding shortfalls.

The borough levies 2.225 mills of property tax, which means that a homeowner with a $100,000 property would pay $222.50.

It levies 1.25 percent earned income tax, which means that a worker whose qualifying earnings amount to $50,000 would pay $625.

Council is expected to adopt the 2018 budget at its Dec. 11 meeting.

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