Oakmont officials' 2020 spending plan includes more paving and no tax hike

Oakmont officials are confident they will hold the line on taxes with next year’s budget.

It’s been about four years since council raised taxes to the current 3.73-mill rate.

The proposed 2020 spending plan will not be advertised until next month, with council’s Dec. 16 voting session as its projected adoption date.

Council discussed preliminary figures at a budget meeting Monday night.

“The borough manager (Scot Fodi) is doing an excellent job, as always,” Council President William Benusa said.

Projected borough finances, including parks and recreation funds, library funds, grants and capital projects list revenues at $8.9 million and expenses at $8.66 million.

However, preliminary figures show general fund expenses at about $4.78 million and revenue at $4.7 million, an estimated $80,000 shortfall.

Officials at the workshop meeting stressed the budget is a work in progress and no decisions have been made.

“This base budget is pretty well balanced,” Councilman Randy Galm said.

Estimated costs include $395,000 for paving, $1.82 million for sewers, $687,000 for parks and recreation, $1.5 million for police, $120,500 for fire, $220,000 for storm water and flood control and $541,000 for Oakmont Carnegie Library.

Borough officials debated the use of $30,000 for an assessment of the library and borough building.

Councilman Tim Favo said the borough building is functional, and money should be used to fix problems instead of finding opinions.

“I don’t want to spend $30,000 and have someone state the obvious,” he said.

Councilwoman Leah Powers said a building evaluation may prove useful, specifically for future library planning.

“I don’t think we can just say, ‘Look. The light’s not working. Let’s fix it,’” she said. “There might be some larger overall problems that some professionals could help them with.”

Officials briefly discussed police personnel. Administration budgeted about $747,000 in salaries for the police chief, six full-time and 10 part-time officers.

Mayor Christopher Whaley said the department has done as much as possible to limit overtime, including cutting five shifts a week since January.

Council adjourned the workshop to an executive session to discuss other personnel matters.