Ezra J. Temko

The budget included a small tax increase, greatly reduced from the 12 cents proposed (or more if you consider the changed projections for transfer tax revenue and in other areas).

Property tax will go up 2.25 cents, which will cost about $20/year for the average single-family home.  This will fund an additional 3 police officers.

The electric utility margin was also increased 1.8% to help fund the pension contribution and retiree health care.  Please note that electric customers should expect to see a decrease of at least 1.8% in January in electric rates (because of the previous temporary increase in response to rising wholesale costs) and therefore residents should not expect to pay any additional monies for their electricity at this time.

Grass collection service is also being changed and incorporated into a once-a-week Wednesday yard waste and grass collection service.  This combined program will save the city over $40,000.

Other cost savings and alternative revenue streams were unfortunately unable to be embraced or adopted because council did not want to make hasty decisions.  However, council will be picking back up the financial discussions in March and working on long-term financial planning as well as evaluating revenue diversification and cost savings.

I hope that you find this budget accomplishes our goals of keeping the city running and providing great services to you while having minimal impact on taxpayers.  This next year we are adding three new police officers, beginning curbside recycling, addressing the Christiana Creek river crossing sewer issue, and moving towards meeting our contractual obligations for our pension fund and retiree health care.