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Connellsville council adopts 2026 budget, salary ordinance and tax rate
Summary
Connellsville City Council on Dec. 16 approved three measures that set the city’s 2026 spending plan, fixed municipal salaries and established the 2026 real-estate tax rate; council members said the budget was balanced without a tax increase.
Connellsville City Council voted Dec. 16 to adopt the city’s 2026 budget, a salary ordinance and the real-estate tax rate for the coming fiscal year.
Councilman Keating introduced the measures, identifying Bill No. 3 of 2025 as the ordinance fixing salaries for 2026 and Bill No. 5 of 2025 as the annual appropriations and estimated receipts underpinning the 2026 budget. After discussion the council recorded roll-call votes approving the salary ordinance, the appropriation ordinance and the real-estate tax ordinance.
Keating said the administration and department heads worked to balance the budget without raising taxes. “Each year, I keep saying how difficult it gets. And each year so far, we've been able to balance it without a tax increase or any other kind of burden to the taxpayers,” Keating said (SEG 553-559).
The ordinances were presented in sequence: the salary ordinance (Bill No. 3 of 2025) to set pay for enumerated positions for fiscal year 2026; the appropriation and budget ordinance (Bill No. 5 of 2025) showing estimated receipts, expenditures and liabilities used to fix the levy and tax rate for 2026; and the real-estate tax-rate ordinance (Bill No. 4 of 2025) fixing rates for city purposes for fiscal year 2026. The clerk conducted roll-call votes on each ordinance and the measures passed as presented (SEG 489-516; SEG 531-549).
Council members did not detail line-by-line appropriation changes during the meeting; Keating thanked residents who engaged in the budget process and department staff for their work compiling the budget (SEG 553-559). The ordinances will take effect as required by the city's procedural rules and the council directed staff to implement the 2026 budget.
The meeting also included routine procedural votes and other resolutions unrelated to the appropriations. The council scheduled a reorganization meeting for Jan. 6, 2026, at 5 p.m. in council chambers (SEG 387-389).
Next steps: staff will publish the adopted ordinances and update city records to reflect the 2026 appropriations and tax rates.
