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Marla Marcinko
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TAB 7
McClatchy-Tribune Regional News (USA)
December 3, 2009
No tax rate increase in proposed 2010 budget in Wilkinsburg
Author: Deborah M. Todd, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Dec. 3 Wilkinsburg's proposed 2010 budget would spare residents a tax rate increase, but
dramatically decrease a fund balance that stood at millions of dollars a few years ago. With
$11,134,122 in projected expenditures and a little more than $10 million in revenues, the
borough plans to use an estimated $1,130,279 fund balance from this year to make up the
difference. Councilwoman Denise Edwards said the balance was about $2 million in 2007.
"Ideally, we want to have a balanced budget, but we want to prevent a tax increase," said Council
Vice President Jason Cohn. Mr. Cohn, Ms. Edwards and council President Eugenia Moore
discussed recent amendments made during a sparsely attended final budget meeting on Tuesday.
Manager Marla Marcinko presented a seven-page list of adjustments made to reduce
expenditures and increase the bottom line, including wage freezes for nonunion employees, a
reduction of anticipated health care increases, the elimination of a public works foreman post and
a temporary halt on new hires.
The borough also will attempt to collect $40,000 in delinquent taxes from 12 properties
recommended for sheriff's sale. In another attempt to raise revenues, Ms. Marcinko presented a
plan for the borough to reach out to nonprofit organizations in the area to request donations in
lieu of taxes. The manager's office calculated an estimated $59 million in tax-exempt property in
the borough, which would bring the borough about $826,000 if taxed.
Ms. Marcinko said that if the borough sends letters to all nonprofit entities in the area and
collects even a small percentage of the projected tax burden, it could receive an estimated
$30,000. Mr. Cohn called the figure optimistic but encouraged Ms. Marcinko to include a
synopsis of the borough's financial condition in the letters.
Ms. Edwards said she would not vote to pass the budget in its current condition because it
depletes the fund balance. "We don't begin getting revenues from real estate taxes until the
spring," she said. "We need the fund balance to cover that." Ms. Edwards questioned
expenditures in the police department, particularly the hiring of seven detectives, and whether
cuts made to the public works department would affect service.
She also said she believed that a new policy that closes committee meetings to the public
prevented the budget process from being as transparent and successful as it ultimately could have
been. "The finance committee meetings were closed to the public, and I've been unable to attend
because they're 2 in the afternoon or 9:30 in the morning," she said. "It locks out the public, and
it locks out members of council." Council will vote on the proposed budget at its Dec. 16
meeting.
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