DUBOIS- The DuBois Joint Board, made up of the current Sandy Township Board of Supervisors and the City Council of DuBois, met in a special work session Wednesday to attempt to hash out the final points of conflict in the 2026 budget.
The Joint Board members were given homework to try to narrow down what capital projects to include in the 2026 budget. This will be used to feed a strategic model to see what level of taxes will be needed to balance the budget. The budget that started out at $900 thousand in the red was reduced to $400 thousand in the red last week to the $200 thousand range this week. An amount that a single mill, over the amount needed to raise Sandy Township properties to the City of DuBois rate, would balance.
Interim Co-Manager Ben Kafferlin stated that the New City of DuBois, when compared to Clearfield County boroughs, would be among the bottom five in lowest tax rates. Kafferlin didn’t mention explicitly if that five included the two boroughs with other sources of funding that let them have 0 mill property taxes.
The water and sewer funds had a few tweaks. The tier system will be standardized for both water and sewer services. Each usage tier, which mostly affects commercial customers, will see a 75% drop in price per thousand gallons. Kafferlin stated the previous prices had no “rhyme or reason” to the rate of decreasing prices.
The minimum payment will start being referred to as a “base charge” after some clarification. Kafferlin said he was informed by Councilmember Jim Aughenbaugh that the term “surcharge” usually is reserved for debt relief charges. The base changes for each property will be determined by the size of the pipes going to the property.
In long term planning, the City has several capital projects to keep in mind with the water fund. The DuBois Reservoir dam needs work, but isn’t to the state mandated repair work stage yet. The water meters in the City’s water pipelines will cost around $3.5 million to replace them all. They are twenty years and are no longer accurate.
The Co-Managers suggested a stronger push for the authority system. This system works by giving an authority run by unpaid citizens early funding with the goal they will turn their task into a profit generating part of the government. This will allow the authority to self-fund their part of the government therefore allowing a reduction of the property taxes that used to fund said authority.
Proposed authorities:
- Redevelopment Authority
- Recreation Authority: Managing the ball fields, parks, and pool
- Library Authority
- Parking Authority: May not be needed
- Hospital Authority
- Emergency Services: Fire departments and EMS
Kafferlin used a potential Emergency Services Authority as an example of tax savings. It is too late to implement it for 2026 but it could be done in 2027. Received legal opinion is that the ESA would be allowed to charge fees to area residents to fund their operations. This would free up 3 mills worth of taxes to either reallocate or reduce taxes by.
