SELINSGROVE- The Selinsgrove Borough Council held a work session for their 2017 budget Monday night. The $6.9 million budget has with expenditures of $6.9 million comes with no tax increase.
During the finance committee’s budget session, they balanced the budget by making $93,000 in cuts to the street program, police department, and capital reserve equipment fund. Councilman Shane Hendricks said, “ We had to modify the street program for 2017 to reduce some of the cost. We also looked at the police department’s overtime and part-time budget and made some reductions there. We are anticipating a $2 million carry over from 2016 and we are using $26,000 of that carry over to balance the budget.”
Increases in the budget come from higher wages and healthcare costs. Councilman Hendricks says that healthcare costs for the borough, which have increased by 40 percent over the past 4 years, “ We have 3 percent wage increase, we have the health care costs, and so that what we were working against, so we try to find other areas where we can save money on.”
The Selinsgrove Borough Council will pass their final budget at a special meeting on December 28. (Sarah Benek)
