About Daveen Rae Kurutz

Daveen Rae Kurutz 412-856-7400 x8627
Staff Reporter
Murrysville Star

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Friday - May 17, 2013

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Franklin Regional candidates talk balancing education with costs

Export residents will see a reduction in their borough property-tax bill this year.

Council approved a 2-mill decrease in the tax rate last week by a 4-2 vote. Councilmen Stanley Mahinske and Dave Pascuzzi voted against the $476,226 budget, and Councilman Lou McQuaide was absent.

Pascuzzi and Mahinske have criticized the tax decrease in light of several expenses the borough and its residents might incur this year.

Last month, Mahinske suggested using the extra 2 mills of revenue to offer sewage-rate relief to residents.

Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority officials have proposed creating a new $3 monthly fee for equipment replacement.

Mahinske said the approximately $60,000 cut in budget could be used to absorb that fee.

Pascuzzi had suggested keeping the tax rate flat and using the extra money to make the borough building more accessible for people with disabilities.

Mayor Michael Calder said officials had been responsible with the borough's money and wanted to pass the fruits of those savings on to residents.

The new borough property-tax rate in Export is 14 mills. The owner of a home assessed at $25,000 — which is the average assessment in the borough — will pay $350 in taxes, about $50 less than in 2012.

Lift update

Plans to make the borough building accessible to people with disabilities still are in the works, Pascuzzi said.

Pascuzzi, the council vice president, has been leading the effort to make the building accessible since council relocated meetings to the former American Legion during the summer. Pascuzzi uses a wheelchair. One of his feet was amputated because of complications from diabetes.

He is looking into the cost of an outside lift to the second floor of the borough building.

The lift would have a canopy to protect it and its users from precipitation and would have a lockbox at the bottom to prevent unauthorized access.

Daveen Rae Kurutz is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-856-7400, ext. 8627, or dkurutz@tribweb.com.

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