'It is a huge increase' Plum resident tells council as nearly 40% tax hike discussed

A nearly 40% property tax increase sought in Plum is too much for residents to afford at once, one resident told borough council Monday.

But leaders in Plum said the hike is intended to fund the borough for the next five years or more.

Brenda Demello called the proposed increase from 4.78 mills to 6.63 mills a balloon payment.

“It is a huge increase that I don’t believe really should be pushed through. Maybe it could be staggered,” she said after the meeting. “All at once, this is a huge amount especially for … the seniors who live in Plum Borough. I don’t believe it’s something that should be implemented all at once, if at all at this point.

“Things go up. That’s the way it is. Everything’s gone up, except for a lot of peoples’ wages, or Social Security. I’m trying to fight this.”

Demello was one of two residents who addressed council on the budget Monday. About 15 people attended.

The proposed tax increase would support the borough’s proposed $25.1 million 2024 spending plan, up 11.7% over this year’s $22.5 million budget. Council is scheduled to vote on both when it meets at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 13.

As proposed, the annual borough property tax bill on a home at Plum’s median assessed value of $116,700 would increase by 38.7%, from about $558 to $774.

The borough has not increased its property tax rate since 2017.

Council President Mike Doyle said officials discussed how to increase taxes, and, likening it to pulling off a bandage, opted for a larger one-time increase over having to confront the issue every year.

Like the last tax increase, this one is expected to carry the borough through the next five or six years, he said.

“Obviously, none of us want to do it. We’ve gone several years now without having to raise the millage rate,” Doyle said. “We still have one of the lowest millage rates in the state for a community of our size.”

Doyle said the borough has dipped into its surplus as much as it can.

At the end of 2022, the borough’s audited unrestricted fund balance was $2.8 million, interim borough Manager David Soboslay said. For 2024, the recommended amount for the borough to have is $2.67 million, he said.

“The economy is hurting everybody: your household, my household, everybody’s household. You feel it at the grocery stores, you’re feeling it at the gas stations. We’re feeling it here as a borough, too. Our expenses are going up and up and up,” Doyle said. “It just got to the point we had to do this. If we didn’t do this now, we would have to look at the budget and make some serious, serious cuts to services, which none of us want to do.”

The borough cut a few projects that were deemed too expensive out of the budget, Councilman David Seitz said.

One such project is the combination splash pad and ice rink that was planned to be built behind the municipal center on Old Mine Road. While the borough never sought bids for the development, it was estimated to cost about $1.6 million, Soboslay said.

Demello thanked council for taking the project off the table for now.

“Government has many things to provide people, most at a significant cost, but can never lose sight of the fact that it all needs to be paid with real money, and this means all of us in Plum,” she told council.

A Plum resident since 1996, Demello said she found news of the proposed property tax increase jarring.

“We had no notification whatsoever,” she said. “Nobody in my neighborhood even knew about this.”

Demello is hopeful more residents will turn out next week.

“I want everybody to come out. That’s the only way that something’s going to happen,” she said. “You need to have the whole community out here. I hope everybody comes out.”