Harrisburg City Council on Tuesday
Harrisburg has solidified a spending plan for the new year.
City Council on Tuesday approved a 2025 general fund budget of $86.9 million, which does not include a property tax increase.
The total budget equals $142 million, including a $21.7 million neighborhood services fund budget, among other budget categories.
Some of the largest expenditures in the 2025 budget include personnel costs and capital expenditures, such as roadwork and construction. Specific projects include money for the Broad Street Market rebuild and the FNB Field stadium upgrades for the Harrisburg Senators, which are both expenditures supported by grant funding.
City officials also previously told TheBurg that the budget is still impacted by post-pandemic challenges such as a loss in parking revenue, business privilege taxes and property taxes, all affected by remote work. This year, officials said, federal COVID funds, interest accrued from those funds and cost-saving measures like in-house construction work help offset the losses.
At Tuesday’s meeting, council members made amendments mostly to salaries and raises for city employees. Council eliminated proposed raises for several positions in the office of the mayor, saying that role responsibilities did not change to warrant an increase, and for the deputy director of treasury. For the latter, council expressed frustration that the treasury office’s hours would not be extended to match city hall hours. Council also lowered numerous other proposed raises for manager-level positions that were over 2%.
Additionally, council eliminated the city-funded portion of the interim director of building and housing development’s salary, about 10% of the overall salary, the rest of which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Council members justified the decrease by saying that they haven’t seen substantial work completed under interim director Gloria Martin-Roberts’ leadership and that they believed she has exceeded her time in what should be a temporary position, along with other concerns.
Additionally, council decided to remove funding for the Police Bureau’s director of community engagement and relations position, which has been vacant for several months, but was due to have a new director beginning work in the coming weeks. Council members said that they believed the position was repetitive and unnecessary.
In other small changes, council voted to add funding for two part-time advisors to council’s youth commission and added $59,000 to the host municipality fee funds, which may be used to help fund a new Harrisburg youth sports program.
Council made other small amendments before voting, 5-1, to approve the budget. Council member Shamaine Daniels voted against the budget, and Council member Jocelyn Rawls was not present.
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