Carbondale budget taking shape

Dec. 05--CARBONDALE -- The city will be the latest Lackawanna County municipality to join a health insurance consortium as Carbondale's 2018 budget continues to take shape.

City council Monday approved joining Pennsylvania Municipal Health Insurance Cooperative in a special meeting after a public hearing on next year's spending plan, which still includes some large variables.

Mayor Justin Taylor previously said Carbondale was exploring self-funding Carbondale's health insurance to save money, with Highmark proposing a 36 percent increase in health insurance premiums -- with the city budget allocating $498,205 toward active and retiree premiums in 2017.

The approach includes getting stop-loss insurance to cover catastrophic claims and paying a steady monthly rate based on conservative calculations by Benecon Group's actuaries.

The current version of the budget totals $6.06 million and does not call for increasing property taxes from 30 mills or the earned-income tax rate from 2 percent -- which increased from 1.8 percent to support the 2017 budget.

A mill is a $1 tax on every $1,000 of assessed property value. A property owner whose home is assessed at $11,485, the median residential assessed value in the city of Carbondale, should continue to pay about $344.55 in real estate taxes.

"We feel good about what the mayor has introduced," Councilman John Masco Jr. said. "We're still waiting on ... our final numbers on our health care, our workers' comp and our garbage and recycling contract. It's still kind of a work in progress until we get those final numbers. We should have everything by the meeting on (Dec. 18)."

City Clerk Michelle Bannon said the administration has gotten most of what it needs to finalize a liability insurance figure and refinanced $1.04 million in debt to save roughly $39,000 annually without extending the term.

The city is still in the beginning stages of using a pension bond to shore up the retirement fund, lowering required annual payments, and working through its garbage and recycling collection contracts.

The only public comment during the hearing came from Jo Anne Chambers, who suggested Bannon should get a raise from the budgeted $47,329 salary after more than two decades with the city.

Council is scheduled to vote on the budget Dec. 18.

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