Jeannette officials OK preliminary budget with no tax hike

A tentative 2021 budget calls for Jeannette to pay back $100,000 to its capital reserve account next year after the money was needed to make it through 2020, according to Michelle Langdon chief fiscal officer.

The $5.5 million preliminary spending plan, approved unanimously by council Thursday, holds the line on property taxes at 35.62 mills.

“I’m really satisfied with the budget … and really happy that it’s balanced and that we get to put money back,” said city clerk Nathan Bish. “We’re really lucky here in Jeannette.”

Langdon said the plan is similar to 2020’s budget but that retirements and other moves freed up a chunk of money to replace the $100,000 that was used out of the capital reserve account this year. That account was created with the $4 million from the city’s 2015 sale of its sewer authority to the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County.

Langdon, who is one of those retirees, said the repayment is a “good thing.” Her replacement is set to start next month.

City officials are projecting they will see about $55,000 less in earned income and local services taxes in 2021, a byproduct of the impacts the coronavirus pandemic has had on employment.

Otherwise, Jeannette seems to have been spared by effects on revenue as a result of the pandemic, Bish said. Manufacturing-type jobs there, and not tourism-related income, plus the reserve account, left the city “in a better spot than some other municipalities,” he said.

The city’s police department remains the costliest in the budget at $2 million. It is followed by the sanitation department at $928,000, fire department at $560,000 and streets department at $527,000.

Officials expect to bring in $1.8 million in current property taxes.

The 2021 budget is available for public view at city hall. A final vote on the plan is set for Dec. 10.