Andy Close
WARREN, Pa. – For the second consecutive year, Warren City Council passed a budget without a tax increase.
Council unanimously approved the 2023 spending plan during Monday night’s meeting.
“I would like to commend the work that went into this budget that enabled the city and council to adopt this budget with no tax increase,” said Mayor Dave Wortman. “We look forward to continuing the progress that we’ve made as a city.”
The budget total for 2023 comes in at just over $23 million.
A total of $10,033,276 is the city’s general fund, which includes finance and administration, police, fire, public works, community and economic development, and codes.
Other funds include the community improvement fund, which is essentially the city’s capital budget, totaling $10,577,000, as well as the sewer fund ($2,650,682) and parking fund ($401,367).
Under the 2023 budget, the real estate tax millage will remain at 20.8 mills on each dollar of assessed valuation, and the combined earned income tax will remain at 2 3/10 %.
“I’d like to thank Mrs. (Jessica) Byler (Finance Officer) for a job well done,” Wortman added. “It’s always good to be able to adopt a budget that doesn’t have a tax increase.”
The budget approval was met with optimism, but Councilman John Wortman also expressed his concern about the city’s commercial district.
“I am extremely concerned that we are losing our commercial district,” Councilman Wortman said. “As a city, we need to ask ourselves why this is happening. I don’t necessarily have an answer to this question, but I have ideas about and I think most people in our community have similar ideas. But this is a problem we have to solve before it becomes too late to solve.”
He also acknowledged that the council has accomplished a lot in 2022, but needs to continue to push for more.
“I think what we have here is a good budget,” Councilman Wortman said. “We’ve accomplished a lot this year and we’re going to accomplish a lot next year, but I think this is a huge issue that we need to address going forward.”
