Scranton officials make case for mayor's 2023 budget proposal

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Nov. 17—SCRANTON — City officials made a case Thursday for the 3% property tax increase and significant personnel investments in Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti's 2023 budget proposal.

It came at the end of an hourslong work session on the mayor's office, Department of Business Administration and Law Department portions of the proposed $116.8 million spending plan. Thursday's session was the last of a series of budget-focused caucuses with administration officials; residents will have an opportunity to weigh in Tuesday during a public hearing on the proposed budget.

Tasked with approving a final budget, council could amend Cognetti's proposal and make changes prior to final passage.

Finance Director Matthew Domines — who worked for the Pennsylvania Economy League while it served as Scranton's state-appointed Act 47 recovery coordinator — shared figures from the city's 30-year stay in the program for financially distressed municipalities when endorsing the proposed tax hike. The city exited Act 47 in January.

As Scranton's assessed real estate valuation declined between 1992 and 2022, city officials often declined to raise taxes. That eventually led to precipitous increases, Domines said.

For example, he noted the city didn't increase taxes from 2008 to 2010 and cut taxes by about 11% in 2011. From 2012, when the city hit rock bottom financially, through 2016, Scranton property taxes increased by 109%, Domines said, noting "droughts in tax increases lead to larger increases."

The proposed 3% hike would generate $957,144 in new revenue and cost a typical homeowner about $25 more next year, according to officials.

Councilman Tom Schuster said he agrees with incremental tax increases but also noted his reluctance to add expenditures, referencing proposed management-level salary increases and new positions in Cognetti's spending plan. After the work session, Schuster said he doesn't believe the extent of the proposed pay hikes and amount of new positions, coupled with a 3% tax increase, is right for the city at this time.

What changes council may ultimately make remains to be seen, but new positions included in the proposed budget would add about $600,000 in costs to the city. Proposed salary hikes for 15 management-level positions would add about $202,011 in costs.

Administration officials contend the positions would bolster city operations and the salary increases would help Scranton attract and retain talent, bringing the city more in line with other cities and making it more competitive.

City Human Resources Director Kaylee Pikulski told council Thursday that recruitment and retention of employees and noncompetitive salaries compared to market rate are all challenges for the city. Working for the city is a steppingstone, Information Technology Director Jack Reager said.

"So you can decide to keep it a steppingstone or we can invest to keep these people here long term," Reager said. "When you think about institutional knowledge, at these turns we have no institutional knowledge. I'm working with a department that the longest-tenured person beyond me is 9 months. That's ridiculous. So when you invest, you're investing for that institutional knowledge."

The majority of Thursday's session featured an in-depth breakdown and discussion of proposed budgets for the mayor's office, Law Department and Department of Business Administration, which consists of the bureaus of administration, human resources, information technology and the treasury.

Video of the session is available online via ECTV's YouTube channel.

Council tabled the 2023 budget ordinance earlier this week pending the public hearing Tuesday at 5:45 p.m. Members could vote to adopt the budget as early as Nov. 29.

In the intervening time, council President Kyle Donahue said members will continue reviewing the budget, take input from officials and residents into account and strive to strike a balance.

"It's really just finding that spot where the majority of council could say, 'I might not agree with everything but it's acceptable to me,'" he said.

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