ZELIENOPLE — Borough council unanimously approved a balanced 2025 budget with a 1-mill real estate tax increase at a meeting on Monday, Dec. 9.

No other increases in millage were enacted in the $12.4 million budget.

An individual property owner will see a monthly increase between $8 and $16, according to borough manager Andrew Spencer. Those funds will be allocated toward the borough’s parks.

“It’s a dedicated millage increase,” Spencer announced to the rest of the council. “It’s not to be used or lost in the general fund. That’s where we’re making the increase. This is largely due to increased costs we’re anticipating in the electric fund as well as a long-term goal to help the park fund in the future.”

In turn, the community parks fund will see about a $30,000 increase in revenue that amounts to $58,412, compared to the $29,190 that was approved in the 2024 budget.

With the anticipation of rising costs, borough officials also budgeted enough for a possible 3% increase in water and electric rates heading into next year.

“We’ve budgeted for those increases, but we haven’t actually gone through the increases yet,” Spencer said.

The purchase of electricity amounted to $2,346,793 in last year’s budget. Officials increased that figure to $2,774,552 going into 2025.

The need for those actions stem from what could potentially be a $500,000 shortfall in electric funding due to rising electric capacity costs that will affect the borough. Out of the electric fund total of $5,866,461, about $5.4 million is from electric sales. That amounts to a $157,585 increase from the 2024 budget.

Meanwhile, the police allocation amounts to $246,342, a drop-off from the approved total of $312,670 in the 2024 budget. That largely stems from a $72,433 reduction in state pension costs.

Borough council also approved two scheduling changes heading into 2025. The upcoming Dec. 30 meeting was canceled, and starting with the first council meeting of the new year in January, all meetings will begin at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30 p.m.