Lansford Borough Council is looking for ways to stabilize the borough’s tax rate long term.

Council members say that their expenses continue to increase, and tax revenue is actually going down because of decreased property values.

Council met Wednesday night for a budget workshop meeting.

If council passed last year’s budget today, they would not have enough money to cover the expenses. The town’s total assessed value decreased $800,000 this year because residents successfully appealed their tax assessments.

And expenses have increased, according to council President Jared Soto. This year, the borough’s insurance costs increased to $525,536 — about one-third of the total budget.

That includes health insurance, workers’ compensation insurance and liability insurance. Workers’ compensation insurance went up by approximately $35,000 this year because of the borough’s history of claims.

Soto said that the insurance costs are a problem faced by a lot of boroughs around the state.

“It’s very difficult to have a large part of your budget to cover these insurance rates,” he said.

Soto said the borough is exploring several ways to make its operations leaner. They are planning to adopt new software programs for code enforcement and tracking landlords to reduce blight and collect payments on permits for violations, and landlord licenses.

“The more efficient the tracking system is, we should be able to reduce the amount of time the code officer is in here,” Soto said.

They are also considering hiring a consultant to find ways that the borough can reduce its expenses and be more efficient. Council members have talked about hiring a borough manager with more experience than their current full-time secretary.

Soto said council may want to consider whether or not they want to fill a full-time police officer’s position which is vacant, or leave the position open and use part-time workers to fill the gap — potentially saving on insurance.

Councilman John Turcmanovich said the department has a hard enough time attracting part-time officers as is, because the department’s part-time pay rate is lower than other area departments.

Council did not discuss whether it plans to raise taxes in the 2019 budget. It plans to pass a proposed 2019 budget at a meeting in December. Residents will then have 10 days to review the budget before it is put up for final adoption.

Council’s next scheduled voting meeting is at 6 p.m. Dec. 12. Council’s committees will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday.