Tonight is the night.
Tyrone Borough Council is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. to discuss its 2007 budget. Last week, no action was taken when it came time for council to vote on the town’s 2007 budget. The reason? The council had already voted down an earned income tax increase, which was part of the basis of balancing the budget.
Borough solicitor Larry Clapper conducted a hearing about two ordinances to increase the earned income tax and to impose an EMS/local services tax of $52 on people who work in Tyrone.
After the hearing, the regular meeting was reconvened and the ordinances were presented to council. Council shot down a motion for the increase in the EIT from .75 percent to 1.25 percent.
The motion failed by a five to two vote. Mayor Jim Kilmartin and council vice president Bill Latchford voted in favor of the tax increase while council members Don Boytim, Jennifer Bryan, Bill Fink, Jim Grazier and Virgie Werner voted against it. Councilman Steve Hanzir was not present.
Council then voted on the local services tax ordinance. The ordinance passed by a four to three margin with Bryan, Kilmartin, Latchford and Werner voting in favor and Boytim, Fink and Grazier voting against it.
Solicitor Clapper said council would need to amend the budget to reflect money from its capital reserve to balance it in order to make up for the projected revenues from the proposed tax increase that council had rejected. Council had already planned to use some money ($51,200) from its capital reserve to balance the money. It also planned to raise certain fees it charges for services to increase revenue. Clapper suggested to council its other option to balance the budget would be layoffs or a cut in government spending.
Although a lengthy exchange between several council members ensued, no decision on what to do about the 2007 budget was made at last week’s meeting. Instead, the issue along motions on 2007 compensation and other fees and taxes were tabled. Instead, council agreed to schedule tonight’s meeting to further discuss the issue.
Clapper informed council if no final budget was adopted by Dec. 31 then the borough would continue to operate based on its 2006 budget on a pro-rated month to month basis. Such a move requires no action from council since it is stated in the borough’s home rule charter.
On Tuesday, Tyrone Borough Manager Sharon Dannaway told The Daily Herald that she and finance director Phyllis Garhart along with all the department heads reviewed the budget again after council’s decision last week. She said they did this to try to see if they could make any cuts in proposed spending.
“At this point, there aren’t any,” said Dannaway.
The police, highway and code departments’ operating expenses were examined, according to Dannaway. She said it would now be left to the council to make what she called “hard decisions.”
Council could chose among several options or a combination of options to balance the budget. For example, they could use capital reserves, cutting services and employee layoffs or some combination of all three to balance the budget. The council could even decide to use those options to some degree and impose a lesser tax increase than the one previously presented to balance the budget.
