Lansford council approves 2018 budget

Lansford Borough Council has passed a 2018 budget that includes money for the police department.

Members voted 3-1 Wednesday night to pass a balanced budget with expenses totaling $2,435,387. Martin S. Ditsky voted against, while Colin Jones, Matt Walsh and John Turcmanovich were absent.

The budget includes more money for police and insurance expenses.

Over the last year the Lansford Police Department has added two full-time officers.

The total millage will be 35.84 mills, a 3.7 percent increase over 2017.

The tax bill for a home valued at $100,000 and assessed at $50,000 will go up by $65.50.

The majority of the tax increase will go toward the general fund. The rest goes to the borough’s streetlight fund. One mill generates $33,231.21 for the borough.

The tax bill for a home valued at $100,000 and assessed at $50,000 would be $1,792.

“It is not a perfect budget, but it is the best budget under the circumstances. We can’t have a perfect budget because there are too many variables,” Councilwoman Rose Mary Cannon said.

The budget anticipates that the borough will be able to collect $83,069 more in delinquent property tax revenue than it did in 2017.

Cannon and Ditsky are both at the end of their terms, as well as Colin Jones, who did not attend a single meeting in 2017. They will be replaced by Marie Ondrus and Irma Leibensberger, while a third seat is up in the air because Bob Silver won a seat on council and the mayoral election.

Streetlights will cost the borough about $96,000 this year. Like a number of other municipalities around eastern Pennsylvania, Lansford is still paying back a loan it took out through a firm called Municipal Energy Managers, which was later convicted of defrauding dozens of municipalities around the state.

Cannon was voting on her final budget after 22 years as a member of borough council. She advised council that with the borough’s tax base on the decline, they may need to consider a larger tax increase in the near future to complete projects like replacing the borough garage, and other improvements requested by residents.

“No one wants taxes to go up, but everyone wants a nice borough, nice streets. We don’t have the tax base, and that’s the unfortunate thing,” Cannon said.