Jeannette Council has adopted a $6.2 million budget for 2025 that includes no increase in property taxes.
The budget calls for spending $2.25 million on the police department, $614,000 on the fire department and $522,000 on the streets department.
“There’ll be no tax increase for the citizens of Jeannette,” said Councilman Chuck Highlands, who voted in favor of the spending plan.
Mayor Curtis Antoniak praised city manager Ethan Keedy for his work preparing the document. Planning sessions with department heads and council members started in the fall. Property taxes will remain at 35.62 mills
“You did one heckuva job on that budget,” said Antoniak, who also OK’d the plan along with Councilmen Chad Krawtz and James Miller.
Councilwoman Michelle Langdon cast the lone dissenting vote. She previously requested the city’s earned-income tax be reduced. Keedy has said he is waiting on a determination from the state Auditor General’s Office related to financial calculations for retirees’ health benefits before potentially looking at reducing the tax, which he described as the ultimate goal.
One percent of earned-income taxes are used for general purposes and an additional 0.4% is put toward pension plans for retirees.
The earned-income tax was raised in the mid-2010s as the city grappled with underfunded pensions. It was decreased to the current rate — 1.4% — in 2020. That came after years of fluctuations, to as high as 2% in 2015, as the city caught up on its overdue obligations for the funds.
