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Marla Marcinko
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TAB 7
Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News
December 28, 2006
Budget would increase sewerage rates
Author: Tony LaRussa, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Dec. 28 Penn Hills residents will see their sewerage rates increase nearly 30 percent in 2007
under a spending plan to be voted on by council Friday. Real estate taxes will not change under
the $49 million budget as it now stands. If that budget is approved Friday, residential sewerage
rates will go from $6.50 per thousand gallons to $8.38 per thousand next year, an increase of
$1.88, or 28.9 percent. Commercial sewerage rates will increase from $7.25 per thousand
gallons to $9.13, for a 25.9 percent increase. The municipality's 4.6-mill real estate tax will
remain unchanged. At the current rate, the owner of a property valued at $100,000 pays $460 a
year in municipal real estate tax.
Municipal Manager Marla Marcinko said the increase in the sewerage rates reflects the
cumulative increases the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority has imposed since 1998, the last
time the rate was raised in Penn Hills.
"For all intents and purposes, the municipality has been using money from the general fund to
subsidize the increases we've received from Alcosan," Marcinko said. "Last year I suggested we
move away from subsidizing those increases, and our engineer this year supported that
recommendation."
At the current rate for sewage treatment, the quarterly bill for typical residential customers using
between 12,000 and 15,000 is between $78 and $98. Under the new rate, those customers' bills
will increase to between $100.56 and $125.70 per quarter.
Marcinko called next year's budget "fiscally responsible" and one that maintains the current
level of services. However, she cautioned that the municipality faces uncertain financial times
because of its declining and aging population and stagnant business growth. "Like many other
communities in Allegheny County, we're moving into a new era that will require us to do more
with less," she said.
Marcinko said she still is considering a number of suggestions from council on how to reduce
spending and will include some of them when the budget is presented for consideration
tomorrow at 4 p.m. in council chambers.
Planned spending on major capital projects includes:
$4.19 million for the new library, currently under construction
More than $6.19 million for sewerage projects
Nearly $1.13 million for street improvements
About $884,550 for storm water management and improvements
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