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Williamsport City Council anticipates approving a budget for 2022 and setting the city tax rate at its meeting Thursday night.
Council spent several hours Thursday amending Mayor Derek Slaughter's $28.3 million, no-tax-increase budget proposal.
The proposed millage is 16.22 mills, or $1,622 per household valued at $100,000.
Council began the amendment process by taking $51,349 from Council's legislative contingency and put it toward increasing salaries in departments of public safety, public works, codes and the treasurer.
Consensus of council agreed, too, that at-will employees should receive a 2.5 to 3 percent salary increase.
However, a proposed 10 percent bump in engineer Jon Sander's salary was not viewed as favorably.
"That sticks in my craw," Councilwoman Liz Miele said.
Not that Sander isn't worth it, she noted, but rather that raises of that amount are not anticipated to be distributed to employees across the board.
Slaughter said the engineer salary increase would come out of liquid fuels and Community Development Block Grant, not the general fund.
The salary increase for at-will employees of 3 percent proposed would increase the budget by $12,478.
The office of treasurer/tax collector Nicholas Grimes was bumped up by $24,500 for the continued effort to collect tax delinquencies and producing positive results with updated technology and better customer service delivery.
A proposal to add a new hire to the police department was tabled or delayed for the next meeting.
Money for RKL of Lancaster to do three separate audits, one of which started, and are to be completed consecutively on River Valley Transit finances (2019-2023) will need to be included in the budget, Miele said.
Slaughter said he is reviewing with Austin White, assistant solicitor, whether money the city paid to a former auditing firm can be recuperated.
Community Development officials asked for $250,000 from the general fund to go toward a future strategic economic development plan. Council was more at ease giving the department $83,000 for payment for a SEDA-Council of Governments consultation and review of prior and future Community Development Block Grants and HOME improvement funds through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Community Development budget proposed was approved but with an eye toward council working together to come up with a fair and equitable solution for the departments needs versus the fiscal situation.
The next meeting is considered a special meeting and will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday. The meeting will be held remotely via YouTube. The site is accessible on the city website.
The city has $25.5 million in rescue funds that council and the administration continue to review where it would be best to spend. It has until 2024 to allocate and 2026 to spend.