Dormont officials expect to lower the property tax millage by 65 percent, from 14 mills to 9.1 mills, because they believe total assessments for the borough will increase by more than half.
Borough Manager Jeff Naftal's proposed $9.99 million budget is based on assessments increasing by 52 percent, to about $473 million. Naftal said he estimated that assessment appeals will drop that number by slightly more than $2 million by the time Allegheny County releases its final figures on Dec. 17.
State law requires municipalities to adjust their millage rates so reassessments don't drive tax revenues up more than 5 percent. Dormont, however, will lower its millage rate more than required so its revenue will only go up 1.85 percent.
“There's no reason to maximize what we're taking out of our residents' pockets this year,” Naftal said.
Taxes on a house assessed at $100,000 would fall from $1,400 to $910.
The revenue increase will allow Dormont to give a 3 percent pay raise to most borough employees; add four employees, including a full-time borough engineer; pay for about $500,000 worth of road reconstruction, resurfacing and alley reconstruction; and put money in reserve.
The budget will include a salary of as much as $70,000 a year for an engineer, plus benefits.
“We've been spending in excess of $200,000 (a year) on consulting engineers from Gateway (Engineers),” said council President Bill McCartney. “We can probably hire our own engineer for one third of that.”
Naftal said the borough didn't previously budget for an undesignated reserve for emergencies. The borough should end 2012 with a surplus of about $500,000, and the reserve will be built up during the next few years to about $1.8 million, or enough to run the borough for up to three months, he said.
Naftal said having a reserve fund could improve the borough's credit rating for future borrowing and allow it to reduce the amount of tax anticipation loans it takes out to cover expenses before residents pay taxes.
The budget proposal also allows an employee to be added to the Parks Department. Currently, the department's sole employee is the only person qualified to handle the chemicals used in the Dormont Pool. That means the employee sometimes spends the whole day monitoring the pool, McCartney said.
He lauded the inclusion of a road maintenance program, which should allow one road — likely Mervin Avenue — to be rebuilt from the ground up, while 10 other roads could be milled and repaved. The Public Works Department made a list of roads most in need of repaving or reconstruction. Dormont has not had a road reconstruction and repaving plan since 2006.
Council expects to vote on a final budget at its Dec. 3 meeting. Residents can comment during the meeting or email their council member or Naftal at jnaftal@boro.dormont.pa.us.
Copies of the budget can be downloaded at boro.dormont.pa.us.
Matthew Santoni is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5625 or msantoni@tribweb.com.
