SLIPPERY ROCK — For the eighth consecutive year, the borough will keep its tax rate flat.

According to Mayor Jondavid Longo, Slippery Rock was the second-highest taxed municipality in Butler County when his first term began in 2018, but is now entering its eighth year with no increase.

At its Tuesday, Nov. 19 meeting, borough council reviewed and approved the advertisement of a $1,209,025 budget. It is set to be approved during the Dec. 3 council meeting.

The budget is up slightly from last year’s budget of $1,183,290. Borough manager Christian Laskey said the borough anticipates slightly higher revenue due to an increase in the assessed values of area properties.

The borough’s millage rate stays at 21.125 mills and a fire tax stays at 1.25 mills.

A concern when creating the budget was increased health care costs for municipal employees, Laskey said. He reported meeting with insurance companies to find one that would meet the workers’ needs.

“They weren’t asking for the world, they’re just asking for to be able to see their doctor and not have a gazillion dollar copay,” Jeff Campbell, council president, said.

He stated that municipal workers are satisfied with the insurance that was chosen.

“We were able to fit it in our budget without having to raise taxes, which I think was important to all of us in a time when it seems like everybody’s raising taxes,” Campbell said.

He then said the time to raise taxes may come eventually, but “as of right now we have a balanced budget with no tax increase.”

The expense of hospitalization insurance for borough employees went up by over $24,000, according to the proposed budget.

The council was able to account for this change by what Campbell calls “trimming the fat.”

“If you’re not going to raise taxes, there’s only one way to get funded,” he said, “and that is cut services … obviously, we don’t want to touch our police force, don’t want to touch our funding that we give to development or to the park … you have to look deep inside.”

One way to do this was decreasing “miscellaneous administrative expenses” by $2,000. Additionally, spending on materials and supplies for borough administration was reduced by $3,442.16.

Other budgetary changes included increases in some areas, specifically to the police, parks and street departments. The expense of website maintenance also went from $500 to $2,300.

The full 2025 budget proposal is available online at slipperyrockboroughpa.gov.