Borough Council Will Present Balanced Budget

After nearly four hours of deliberation, the Conshohocken Borough Council is ready to approve a balanced budget at its December meeting.

The council held a special work session on Nov. 30 to address a While no action was taken, the council was able to come up with a plan to present the budget for approval at its December meeting after nearly four hours of review.

“I want to commend all council members for working so cooperatively and diligently on balancing this budget,” council chair Paul McConnell said after the meeting.

The council will present its $10,553,900 budget for final approval at its December meeting.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how the borough closed its budget gap:

Less Conservative Estimations

One of the area’s where the borough found more money by making slightly less conservative estimates on its incoming revenue from real estate transfer taxes. The council added $40,000 to the proposed budget by increasing its expected revenue from $200,000 to $240,000.

Council chairman Paul McConnell supported the increased estimation, saying that the borough has historically made more than it expected on real estate transfer taxes.

“Looking at the history over the last five years, even through slower times, this prediction struck me as low,” he said. “We [budgeted at] $200,000 and that seems too low.”

Finding New Revenue

Another area that helped closed the gap was a proposed fee on commercial businesses for fire inspections. According to fire engineer John Costello, the borough could raise as much as $15,000 a year by charging businesses a fee for fire inspections.

Currently, the borough offers fire inspections for free to commercial businesses. According to Costello, several area municipalities, including Montgomery Township, charge for fire inspections.

“All commercial properties get annual fire inspections and this [proposal is looking to put a charge on that,” he said.

McConnell supported the proposal, as long as it extended to commercial businesses only.

“This is an example of us finding money where we weren’t collecting it before,” he said. “This is something that a lot of municipalities have been doing that we just weren’t before now.”

Spending Cuts

The borough council cut $10,000 out of its communications budget for a proposed plan aimed at welcoming new businesses. The $27,000 originally budgeted for the package would allow the borough to contract the work out.

Council member Carolyn Maye supported cutting the number.

“In terms of spending $27,000 to create a communication plan …it’s unwise if we can do that in house,” she said.

McConnell said that he felt the borough “needed something like this,” but supported the cut.

The council also cut $4,500 by reducing its number of potential internships for college students by 1.

The final budget will go to vote on December 21.