Harmony budget deficit covered by reserves
Harmony’s final 2024 budget saw a more than $12,000 deficit covered by reserve funds from last year.
Revenues totaled $789,362, with $12,407 pulled from reserves to balance the anticipated $801,769 in expenditures.
Greg Such, council president, said he wasn’t worried about the deficit.
“There’s a lot of money flowing right now from federal and state entities,” he said. “We got a lot of money in grants last year, and we’re hoping that there’s enough coming yet that will make up that offset.”
Despite the deficit, Such said the borough did not need to raise taxes.
“We did not raise the millage on real estate, and that is something that we haven’t done for 14 or 15 years now,” he said. “I really try to hold the line on that, because we have older folks in the community, so we’re trying to be careful.”
While the borough raised its fire tax last year due to an agreement with Harmony Fire District, Such said the rate would remain the same in 2024.
Such said the borough predominantly saw increased expenses this year for salaries and insurance.
“Now, we’re lucky, I think, because there are some things that I’m not anticipating will be as high — like fuel and salt,” he said. “We still have salt from last year and gas prices are a dollar lower than they were last year.”
Capital improvement projects in the borough include $90,000 in stormwater projects to mitigate flooding along Spring Street and Seneca Drive, according to Such, covered by Butler County Municipal Infrastructure Program grants.
Contracts were awarded for the stormwater projects, he said, with the council writing the bids “cafeteria-style” to save on costs.
“We can kind of pick and choose different parts depending on how things transpire, because when the bids went out, materials were high-priced,” Such said. “Now that inflation has slowed and the supply chain is catching up, some of those materials are going to come down.”
An additional $200,000, supported by state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Funds, will fund a revitalization project in the borough’s square.
“That is sidewalks and curbing,” Such said. “And beginning laying the infrastructure to move the utilities underground.”
The project is expected to go to bid in January, according to Such, with the estimated cost being made pre-pandemic.
“We’ll see what comes back,” he said, “but we can get some other community support on that if we need to.”
Supported by a county parks and recreation grant, the borough will also begin $65,000 in improvements to the borough’s playground. Bids have already gone out for the project.
“I think we came out of the pandemic pretty well, considering where we could have been,” Such said. “And we kind of owe that to the support of the county commissioners, in terms of how they worked the state and the federal funding and were able to redistribute that.”
