Mayor Eric Papenfuse last night proposed a $65 million budget for 2017, a spending plan meant to address several critical capital improvements.
A Harrisburg police officer demonstrates a Taser at last night’s city council meeting.
The budget, a nearly $6 million spending increase from last year, includes $2.5 million for a new public works facility, $127,754 for police body cameras and Tasers and $90,000 for Reservoir Park’s band shell.
City council will hold public meetings on the budget on Dec. 7 and 8. Council is scheduled to vote on a 2017 spending plan at its Dec. 13 legislative session.
Papenfuse began his annual budget discussion with some good news. The administration estimates an end-of-year 2016 city cash balance of $12 million, as, the city underspent its budget this year and received an estimated $64 million in revenue, $4 million more than the initial budget.
Come 2017, Papenfuse projects $65 million in revenue, with increases coming from parking enforcement, local services taxes, increased business licensing fees and code inspecting fees.
The annual business license fee will increase from $40 to $50 as of Jan. 1 2017. Papenfuse called parking payments “essential revenues for city sustainability.”
Papenfuse projects personnel, health care and pension to be the main sources of increased spending in 2017, up nearly $3 million.
Maintaining and building capacity
As part of the budget, six management positions will be upgraded or reclassified, Papenfuse said. This includes a health and ADA compliance officer; the director of business and resource development; and a solid waste logistics and composting manager.
The general fund will support one new traffic engineer technician and three new codes officers. The codes officers will pay for themselves, Papenfuse said, with fee increases and by helping the city tackle a backlog of rental inspections.
Harrisburg parks would see increased maintenance and cleaning under the proposal. Papenfuse proposed six new parks maintenance laborers, one parks maintenance secretary and one park ranger.
Capital Investments
Last night, Papenfuse proposed reserving half of the $12 million in current savings as a nest egg and spending the other half on capital improvements.
Under the budget proposal, $2.5 million would be set aside for the purchase of a new public works facility site, one of the city’s highest priorities. A composting site would receive $120,000. About $2.3 million would fund new equipment and vehicles.
“Our needs exceed our resources,” said Papenfuse about capital projects, adding that the department heads identified the most pressing needs for capital investments.
Reservoir Park would receive $90,000 to resurface, paint and repair the band shell. Currently, consultants are creating a master plan to best utilize the park. The public identified the band shell as a need during the first public meeting.
The bureau of police would receive $215,000 for four patrol vehicles, $79,920 for body cameras and $47,834 for Tasers out of a total $497,834 allotted for police capital improvements in the proposed budget.
The proposed budget gives $130,000 to the Bureau of Fire to replace a straight truck and upgrade inspector vehicles.
Papenfuse proposed other infrastructure spending for projects such as traffic signal upgrades, accessibility improvements per ADA requirements and streetlights.
“These should have been improved on long ago,” Papenfuse said.
Future of Act 47
The budget is only sustainable with revenue from the taxing powers from Act 47, Papenfuse said.
He sees a few options to keep the revenue generated from Act 47 taxing powers.
The city could team with other small cities and push for state-level legislative change. With a tax-adverse Republican majority in state legislature, increasing municipal taxing powers may be a long shot, he said.
Alternatively, City Council could initiate a “home rule” process and create a new city charter, like Carlisle did last year. Home rule municipalities are not bound by municipal codes created by state laws. Rather, home rule municipalities decide municipal matters – property taxes, personal taxes – in a city charter.
A third option would be if the state legislature abolishes school property taxes, Papenfuse said. Then Harrisburg residents might see an increase in city real estate taxes.
“We have to come up with a solution to get us out of Act 47,” he said.
Investments in Policing
At the meeting, Papenfuse said officers need more non-lethal options, but do not have access to them. Therefore, he proposed new Tasers for every officer and the deployment of 303s on every shift.
A 303 is an impact device shoots lead paintballs. With an extended range of 55 feet, the 303s can mark individuals for apprehension in a protest.
Body cameras for every officer and two proposed new positions—a public safety information technology specialist and a crime analysis—will promote transparency, Papenfuse said.
“I think it will build confidence from the public with the police. With transparency comes trust,” Papenfuse said.
He said he realized that the police need a wider range of non-lethal options following his review of the case of Earl Shaleek Pinckney, who was shot to death in August by Harrisburg Police Officer Tony Elliott. Last night, Papenfuse added that, he agreed with District Attorney Ed Marsico that Elliott’s actions were justified.
Under the budget proposal, officers would receive more training, updated technology and repairs on their building.
In 2017, two new police officer positions will open, in addition to the 17 the police department is currently looking to fill. Papenfuse proposes incentives, like paying back training costs upon resigning, to encourage new hires to stay with the bureau.
Next meetings:
Public budget meetings will be held at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 7 and 8 at City Council chambers.
City Council is expected to amend and vote on a 2017 municipal budget on Dec. 13 at 6 p.m.
Author: Danielle Roth
