State College borough doesn’t raise taxes in 2017 budget

In 2017, borough residents won’t see a tax increase.

State College Borough Council adopted the 2017 budget on Monday.

The budget includes total expenditures — after adjustments for interfund transfers — of about $48.6 million, said borough Manager Tom Fountaine.

The budget’s general fund is balanced with recurring revenues of $27,356,049, an allocation of $331 from unreserved fund balance, an allocation of $271,761 from insurance reserves and expenditures of $27,628,141, Fountaine said.

The borough’s contribution to the Centre Region Council of Governments will be about $1.6 million, he said.

Council also adopted an ordinance that increased the sanitary sewer tapping fee as a pass-through fee for the University Area Joint Authority. The fee has two components — one portion set by the borough and the other set by UAJA.

The UAJA board approved a 3.7 percent increase for its portion of the fee.

In other business

Dwight Miller, the borough’s manager of financial services, offered a report on the borough’s 2016 year-to-date finances.

Through November, the general fund revenues totaled about $25.7 million, while the expenditures totaled about $22.7 million, Miller said.

That produced excess revenues over expenditures of a little more than 3 million, he said.

“Overall, everything is on track, in terms of expenditures, for the year end. ... We’ve saved a considerable amount in personnel costs, not because we wanted to, but because of the vacancies and the retirements in the police department,” he said.

This story was originally published December 19, 2016 at 9:50 PM with the headline "State College borough doesn’t raise taxes in 2017 budget."