State Delays Borough Budget Vote

The Mayor and Council postponed a vote on the 2011 municipal budget Tuesday, since the state hasn't approved the spending plan yet.

The $56.6 million budget was on the agenda for the Tuesday meeting, when the Mayor and Council expected to have received approval, but Mayor Richard LaBarbiera said the governing body would have to schedule a special meeting once they got a go-ahead from the state.

Borough employees took the opportunity to sound off on the budget, which includes layoffs for five full-time and two part-time employees, and demotions for three others. Janis Kohl, president of the Public Employees Association, railed against the personnel moves.

"It is sad and disgraceful that the very employees that keep this Borough functioning each day have become nothing more than numbers to the governing body," she said.

A private company will replace four Borough custodians, a move expected to save the Borough $150,000 this year and $300,000 in 2012. Kohl said each of the custodians had worked for the Borough for more than 20 years each, and one had never used a sick day.

Kohl also spoke out against a pair of demotions at the municipal court, which would cut one employee's salary by $18,489 and another's by $13,589. The latter employee, Doreen Miller, said the pay cut would cripple her ability to educate her daughter.

"You people don't realize that this is my only income," Miller said to the Mayor and Council. "I'm trying to put a child through college. What you're taking away from me is my child's education."

LaBarbiera asked the Council to use the delay in the budget process to find a way to save the employees on the chopping block. He said the salaries of the few employees were equivalent to a tax increase of less than $20 in the property tax bills of most residents.

"We should take this opportunity afforded us to make sure we make the right decision," he said.

The personnel moves are the last in a round of cuts recommended by the Borough budget committee, in an effort to create a spending plan with no increase in the amount of taxes collected. Councilman Alan Brundage, chairman of the budget committee, hopes the cuts will help the Borough in 2012, when it faces a $6 million pension payment.