Pottsville officials announced at a second budget workshop meeting Wednesday that there will be no tax increase for 2026.
Further, the city plans to add three police officers to its current roster of 19 and 1 member to its Street Dept. crew.
Those are the highlights of a balanced preliminary budget that will likely be approved at a special meeting this coming Tuesday afternoon. A vote on a final budget will come in December.
Acting City Administrator Lisa Shuman thanked department heads for coming forward with cuts to their previous requests to help knock down an $833,000 deficit announced just last week.
She said it was a matter of cutting “$5,000 here and $52,000 there” to arrive at a balanced budget proposal.
According to Pottsville Tax Collector Taryn Dragna, the City’s new millage for 2026 (using the equalization worksheet she received from the Schuylkill County Tax Assessment office earlier in the day) is proposed to be 5.363. It was 27.22 in 2025.
That new millage rate could change slightly pending the results of ongoing property tax assessment appeals at Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas. Pottsville, like all municipalities, is required to pass a property tax revenue-neutral budget in the first year of the post-reassessment valuations.
City property owners, if that millage rate holds true after appeals, will have to pay $5.363 per $1,000 of assessed value.
The preliminary budget also allows for a 17.1% raise for Fire Chief Jim Misstishin, bumping his salary from $72,545 to $85,000. He initially requested a raise to $95,000.
Next year’s preliminary budget does not include a new police patrol vehicle but city officials say it may be possible to put in an order for one halfway through 2026 because the first payment on it wouldn’t be due until 2027.
Pottsville Police Chief John Morrow had requested four new police officers for next year but got three.
There was also some debate on whether there would be enough money to afford those three officers and a new member of the Street Dept. crew or if the city could only afford two officers and a street department worker.
Shuman said the difference in cost between the two, including salary and benefits, is about $125,000 for a cop and $109,000 for the street department.
The City plans to lean on its Parking Authority to help come up with the money to fund the new Street Dept. position.
In defending the need for another worker, Streets Superintendent Tom Whitaker said his employees are “the people who fight blight. We’re the workers for the Parking Authority, the Redevelopment Authority. We’re the manpower.”
Pottsville Area Development Corp. executive director Savas Logothetides told council members during Wednesday’s discussion that the money-making assets for the Parking Authority are owned by the City and its bonds are backed by the City.
He said the Parking Authority could pay the Street Dept. worker directly or through the City. Or, the Parking Authority could pay rent to the City government on those money-making assets, like the Mahantongo Parking Garage.
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