Nanticoke’s 2008 budget includes no new taxes

NANTICOKE – Council members approved the 2008 budget of $6.7 million during Wednesday night’s regular meeting.

But residents will be happy to know their taxes are not going up. At least not right now.

Residents will still pay a 2 percent earned income tax, which was increased earlier this year.

City officials acknowledged the city might need to raise taxes for debt services in 2009 because the debt service millage was reduced too much when council members figured the 2007 budget.

In 2006, the millage set aside for debt service was 30 mills, but it was reduced more than half to 14 mills for 2007, City Administrator Kenneth Johnson said.

“They were able to drop it because they changed the whole tax structure of the city with earned income taxes,” he said.

“But from what my finance director has told me – and I don’t do that analysis because that is her job – she tells me that the 14 is actually too low.”

He said a former council member suggested lowering the debt services but council lowered it too much.

The city’s property tax rate for 2008 will remain at 44.5 mills, which Johnson said is the same as this year’s tax rate, with 30 mills paying for the general fund, 14 mills paying for debt service and 0.5 mill paying for the library. A mill is a $1 tax on each $1,000 of assessed property value.

City Treasurer Al Wytoshek asked if the city could leverage a tax rate of 44.5 mills without getting approval from a Luzerne Court of Common Pleas judge.

City Solicitor William Finnegan, Pennsylvania Economy League Executive Director Gerald Cross and Johnson informed Wytoshek the city only had to appear before a judge for such a request if the general fund tax rate would be higher than 30 mills.

Mayor John Bushko was the sole vote against the budget, saying he felt the funds allocated for attorney’s fees were too high. He said if some of those funds were cut the city could apply more money toward capital projects to fix the city’s roads.

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Council members increased the city’s earned income tax to 2 percent earlier this year.

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