Tyrone Borough Council members spent much of their most recent meeting on Monday night working through changes to certain fees the borough charges for its services.
Tyrone Borough was facing a deficit in its 2007 budget. In November council had decided to raise its Earned Income Tax by .50 percent to 1.25 percent. Additionally, the borough will impose a $52 EMS (local services) tax on those who work in the borough. Previously, the borough had charged a $10 occupational tax. Council also decided to increase some of the borough’s fees last month. For example, there will be an across the board increase of $5 for Reservoir Park reservations. Council also decided to increase fees for eating/drinking establishment licenses. Establishments with under 50 seats will now pay $75 instead of $55. Council decided not to raise property taxes, which are currently at 29 mills.
The moves still left the borough with a $51,200 deficit and council decided to cover that by taking money from its capital reserve.
On Monday, council reviewed all fees and decided to increase or establish fees for some of its services.
For example, eating/drinking establishments with 50 or more seats will now pay $150 instead of $110 for a license.
The borough also decided to increase fees for pool passes as follows: Residential family season passes will increase by $5 to $70; adult resident (18 and over) passes will increase by $5 to $50; child resident (age 6 to 17) will increase by $5 to $40; non-residential family passes by $5 to $95; adult non-resident by $5 to $75 and child non-resident by $5 to $65.
In 2007, the borough will charge $5 for adult daily walk-up passes and $4 for children daily walk-up passes regardless of whether the person is a resident or non-resident of the borough. Previously, the borough had differentiated between residents and non-residents for both adult and child daily passes. Both the $5 adult and $4 child daily pass fees reflect increases of varying degrees depending on whether the purchaser is a resident or non-resident.
Council also agreed to charge a fee for the evaluation of an existing building for a change of use under fees it charges regarding commercial buildings. The fee for such an evaluation will be $25.
Tax and fee increases still need to be formally adopted. That is expected to happen at the next council meeting on Monday, Dec. 11. Once those moves are made, council can adopt the proposed 2007 budget at the same meeting.
Borough manager Sharon Dannaway indicated the budget that council will consider next Monday will contain the estimated revenues from the tax increases and certain fees council agreed to raise at a November meeting. She said she did not expect it to reflect the estimated revenue to be generated from the fees council agreed to increase or charge earlier this week.
