TAYLOR - Borough residents could face a new property tax as high as 12 mills after council unanimously passed a proposed $3.5 million budget Wednesday.
It's a proposal council President Kenneth Mickavicz knows could be painful for some.
"People are on fixed incomes, " Mr. Mickavicz said.
This would be the first property tax the borough has had in more than 20 years, ever since it entered into an agreement with the Alliance Sanitary Landfill that gave the borough a yearly guaranteed minimum payment of $1.35 million.
The agreement ended in 2010 and the borough had to use its savings to balance the budget for two years. Its remaining savings, $350,000, still left a $480,000 deficit, making a tax necessary.
Since the borough is paid per ton delivered to Alliance, the property tax could shift up or down each year - depending on how their business does.
"If their tonnage is down, our revenue is down," Mr. Mickavicz said.
Under the tentative budget, an average homeowner would pay $127.71 yearly in property taxes. A mill is equal to $1 tax for every $1,000 in assessed value. The average residential property in Taylor is assessed at $10,643.
In other business, council unanimously voted to allow Mr. Mickavicz to negotiate a Workers' Compensation Review Agreement with the Pittsburgh-based American Risk Management Inc. to review past insurance claims for overpayments. If anything comes back that gives the borough a credit, the group would keep half, while the borough would keep the other.
Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, @jkohutTT on Twitter