Property taxes will rise if a tentative budget approved is then adopted in final form later this month.

Meeting in special session Wednesday night, Summit Hill Borough Council unanimously approved a tentative $1,622,045 spending plan that calls for a 2.75-mill tax hike.

Council President Michael Kokinda said for every $50,000 of assessed property valuation, it means an increase of $68.75 per year.

Rising insurance costs is the main culprit behind the tax increase, according to Councilman David Wargo.

While one resident claimed adding a sixth, full time police officer was not needed, Wargo said the addition had nothing to do with the rise in taxes.

“Two mills of the increase is because of liability, workmens’’’ comp and health insurance,” Wargo said. “The salary for a patrolman is $71,000. They make 75% of that to start, or $53,250. Between the budgeted money and reserve, we had most of the salary and a good portion of the health insurance.”

Wargo said both he, independently, and council as a whole, tried to cut costs as much as possible.

“The 2.75 mills equates to $100,000,” Wargo said. “I spent four hours at home, and I found $11,000. Council spent another three hours together. We went down as far as we could without jeopardizing your safety and health.”

In the budget, employee health insurance is listed at $207,214, liability insurance at $84,427, and workmens’’’ comp at $63,030.

Wargo also noted that typically, about 10% of property taxes go unpaid each year, as well as other taxes, such as earned income and per capita taxes.

“All of those unpaid taxes amounts to about 1 mill,” Wargo said.

Mayor Jeffrey Szczecina said for the last three years, the borough has had COVID money to fall back on.

“If we didn’t, maybe we would have raised taxes half a mill a year instead,” the mayor said.

Council will advertise the budget for 10 days, as required by law, and then schedule another special meeting before the end of the month to adopt the final budget.

Extra officer

Szczecina said the sixth officer is needed to maintain 24-hour police protection.

In the past, the borough was able to use part-time officers to achieve the coverage. But part-time officers are getting harder and harder to come by, necessitating hiring full-time officers instead.

The mayor also took the opportunity to defend officers’ reputations as hard-working.

“I do not know why there are people in this borough who think our officers sit in the office doing nothing,” Szczecina said. “If they are not on patrol, they are on the (firing) range. They have to spend mandated time on the computer. The only time they are in the office is when they are eating their lunch. I am sick and tired of our officers being criticized when they are a hard-working group.”

New secretary

Council also voted unanimously to hire Samantha Jones as the new assistant secretary, with up to 150 hours of training as needed to be used by the retiring assistant secretary to train her. 90 percent of the money will come from the sanitation fund, and 10% from the general fund

Borough Secretary Kira Steber said the months of January and February are too busy for her, with garbage bills sent out in January and delinquents dealt with in February, for her to train Jones.