Crafton budget workshop proposes no tax increase, recommends reserve and spending decisions

At a Sept. 24 budget workshop, borough staff presented a proposed balanced budget for the fiscal year that assumes no tax increase and outlines about $8 million in bond-funded infrastructure projects, borough staff said.

The presenter, identified in the meeting transcript as Jim (staff member), told council members the general fund reserve is slightly low but that moving operating balances into interest-bearing reserve accounts could capture about $17,000 to $25,000 in additional interest. “Wewe're looking at no tax increase this year, balanced budget,” Jim said while summarizing the staff recommendation.

The nut of the workshop was twofold: staff described current fund balances and reserve targets (staff said three months of reserve is the target), and they presented a list of capital and maintenance "decisions" for council to prioritize. Staff said the general fund has not dipped below about $1 million in recent periods and recommended transferring some checking balances for the general, road and sewer funds into reserve accounts with higher yields to improve interest income.

Key facts from the presentation: the boroughs proposed general fund budget is roughly $6.7 million; the bond/capital program includes about $8 million in projects to be executed over the next year that are expected to draw the bond fund down to about $1.4 million (or $1.1 million if an applied-for Crafton Boulevard streetscaping grant is awarded); the sewer fund is about $2.6 million; and the road fund was shown with a notional $1 million program. Staff also noted a potential accounting item: after five years on a bond issue, any excess interest above a 1.45% threshold must be paid back (staff estimated an approximate $70,000 liability for the borough under that rule).

Staff said the bond tracking sheet is reconciled to August with a small timing discrepancy of about $3,700 and that staff had contacted the EPA to begin drawdown discussions on two capital projects. They also flagged a higher-than-expected number of operations-and-maintenance (O&M) sewer repairs coming into next year and said delaying those repairs often increases later costs.

Council members and staff agreed to continue working on line-item estimates for paving and sewer repairs and to meet again in two weeks to refine priorities. No formal votes were taken at the workshop; staff asked council to review the decision list and provide feedback before the next meeting.