Tarentum Budget Explorer
See where every dollar of the proposed 2027 budget comes from and goes, where the capital projects are, and try balancing the General Fund yourself. Figures are the Manager's proposed budget; nothing here is adopted until Council votes in December.
2027 at a glance
Where the General Fund goes ($5.08M)
Click a category to open it in the Expenses explorer.
Where the General Fund comes from ($5.08M)
The Electric Fund transfer is the single largest source. Reducing that reliance is the reason for the phased tax strategy.
All nine funds, 2027 (budgeted totals)
Capital Reserve is mostly held, not spent: $2.0M of policy minimums and a $1.61M emergency balance. Only $278,000 is appropriated in 2027 (plant mechanical match, records digitization and the Dreshar Stadium demolition).
What changed from 2026
- The Borough plans to bring two linemen back in-house instead of relying on contractors, giving it more control over a critical Borough asset: faster outage response and in-house crews for storms and routine line work.
- Water Line Replacement Program begins: $385,300 from Water Fund surplus replaces about 1,500 feet of the oldest of 13 miles of century-old main in year one, with the program growing as the rate phase-in and grants add funding.
- Brackenridge's share of the shared police department rises with the cost of the four officers it funds under the agreement; the department stays at 14 officers.
- Reserve Policy applied: $750,000 General Fund operating reserve (14.8% of budget) and $2.0M of Capital, Electric and Water reserve minimums left untouched.
Why the Borough keeps reserves
Hill Street is the clearest example. When the hillside under the road began to fail, the Borough had $125,450 in Capital Reserve to permit, bid and start the stabilization this year. Without that reserve the road would have stayed closed until a grant cycle or a loan came through, and grants rarely pay for emergencies. The same logic applies to each utility: the Water reserve is what pays a contractor at 2 a.m. when a century-old main breaks, because the distribution system has one staff member; the Electric rate-stabilization reserve absorbed a one-time transition cost this year and is why the rate step is about 5% instead of a spike when PJM capacity prices jumped tenfold; and the Capital reserve is also the Borough's grant-match money. Most state and federal grants require a local match paid up front, and the Borough has to have the cash on hand to say yes: the $500,000 match on the water tank brought in a $1,000,000 state grant, fully reimbursed in 2026, and the $188,000 match on the plant mechanical work brings $300,000. Across the 2027 program, that $188,000 of Borough money is leveraging about $1.3 million in outside funding, so every reserve dollar used as match does roughly seven dollars of work. Reserves are not idle money. They are the difference between fixing a problem the week it happens and waiting a year for someone else to fund it.
Expense explorer
Every expense line in the proposed budget, grouped by fund and department. Open a department to see its line items and five years of history. 2023–2025 are audited or year-end actuals; 2026 is the estimate at September 30 projected to year-end; 2027 is the proposal. Most routine 2027 lines start from the average of the last few years of actual spending and are then adjusted for known changes (see How we build the estimates).
Revenue explorer
Where each fund's money comes from. Real estate taxes fund about 15% of the General Fund; all tax sources together (real estate, Act 511 earned-income, local services and realty-transfer taxes, and the County sales-tax share) fund about 29%. The rest is fees, shared-service reimbursements, state revenue and the transfer from the Borough's electric utility.
Real estate tax options
The proposed budget balances at 7.48 mills (a 1.5-mill increase). Each mill raises about $93,288 after discounts and delinquency. The table shows what every option from "do nothing" to +4 mills would mean for the General Fund and for a household. All household figures are per year (the monthly equivalent is in parentheses) and cover the Borough tax only; school and county taxes are unchanged.
Where each property-tax dollar goes
Borough (general + fire), Allegheny County and Highlands School District millage combined, at the proposed 2027 rate.
General Fund result under each option
Relative to the balanced proposal. A shortfall could only be covered by cutting services or using the $750,000 operating reserve, which the Reserve Policy limits to emergencies. A surplus could reduce the electric transfer or go to paving, blight removal or reserves.
Millage against 2004 purchasing power
Bars show total municipal millage (general + 0.5 fire). The line at 9.71 is the 2004 general rate adjusted for inflation (9.21) plus the 0.5-mill fire tax, so the comparison is total-to-total; only the +4 option (9.98) exceeds it.
Yield per mill is the 2026 collection rate applied to the $107.9M taxable base (about 86% of the billed levy). School (25.13 mills) and County (6.43 mills) taxes are unchanged by any Borough option. After the court-ordered county reassessment, state anti-windfall rules reset millage so total revenue does not rise, so whatever rate is adopted before reassessment becomes the baseline.
Capital projects and grants
Projects funded in 2027, carried from 2026, or completed this year. Blue is outside funding (state, federal, county); red is the Borough's own share — usually the grant match, paid in cash from Capital Reserve, that a grant requires before it is awarded. Pins on the map are placed by neighborhood, not surveyed; the map link on each card opens an approximate location.
Schematic: Allegheny River along the south-east edge, Bull Creek on the west, Route 28 along the hilltop. Avenues run parallel to the river; First Avenue is nearest the water.
2027 capital program by source
Budget Simulator: try the trade-offs
Move money between General Fund departments, or change a revenue lever, and see what it takes to keep the fund balanced. Pennsylvania law requires a balanced budget, and the Borough's Reserve Policy keeps the $750,000 operating reserve off the table. Every change shows what it would mean in officers, miles of paving, demolitions, and household bills.
What can move and what cannot. Some money is restricted by law: Liquid Fuels (state gas tax) may be spent only on PennDOT-approved road and bridge work; grant dollars only on the project they were awarded for; the Sewer Fund only on sewers. Those are not levers. Money can move between the General, Water, Electric and Capital Reserve funds by transfer, and those four appear below. But every transfer has a cost on the other side: pulling from Water means fewer century-old mains replaced and more breaks; pulling from Electric means higher rates, a smaller line crew and longer outages; pulling from Capital Reserve means no cushion for an emergency water-main break, a failed pump or a storm. The "What happens" panel spells out those trade-offs as you move each slider.
Rules that limit the levers. Wages and benefits for the police, water, electric and public works workforces are set by three collective bargaining agreements (the police contract under Act 111, the IBEW Local 126 agreement for the electric line crew, and the AFSCME agreement covering public works and water), so a cut to a department in practice means fewer positions or less overtime, not lower pay. Pension contributions are a state-certified minimum (Act 205), debt payments are contractual, and insurance, PennDOT, DEP and PUC requirements set floors under many lines. Grant and state money must be spent exactly where it was awarded, and the Borough Code requires the adopted budget to balance and be advertised before Council votes. The simulator respects those rules: fixed obligations are locked, restricted funds are not levers, and reserve use is flagged against the Reserve Policy.
Spending levers (2027 proposed)
Revenue levers
What happens
Dollar effects are arithmetic from the budget. Service effects (response times, outages, main breaks) are illustrative estimates, not predictions.
Assumptions behind the "what happens" math
- One police officer (wages, benefits, pension, equipment) costs $163,919 in 2027; Brackenridge pays 4/14 of the department plus 7%, so each $1 cut from police saves the General Fund only $0.69.
- One mill of real estate tax raises about $93,000 and costs the median Tarentum home ($40,000 assessed) $40 a year.
- Mill-and-overlay paving runs roughly $250,000 per mile; a season of road salt is about $40,000.
- A typical residential demolition costs about $25,000.
- Water main replacement averages about $250 per installed foot, so $385,300 ≈ 1,500 feet. Electric retail revenue is $5.3M, so $100,000 ≈ 1.9% on rates (≈ $3.50 a month on a 1,000 kWh bill).
- Each $1.00 on the monthly one-can garbage rate raises $20,328 (1,694 one-can units × 12 months); the same figure is used throughout the page. The hauler's 2027 contract increase is $1.00 per unit per month on about 2,009 billed cans, roughly $24,100.
How to read this budget
Funds, not one pot
The Borough keeps separate funds by law. The General Fund pays for police, streets, code enforcement, parks and administration. The Water, Electric and Sewer funds are utilities paid by ratepayers, not taxpayers. Liquid Fuels is state gas-tax money that may only be spent on roads and bridges. Capital Reserve holds savings for emergencies and big projects under the Reserve Policy.
Why the electric transfer matters
Tarentum owns its electric system, and for two decades its profits have covered the gap between taxes and the cost of services. That transfer is $1.5 million in 2027, 30% of the General Fund. The phased tax strategy that begins with the 1.5-mill increase is meant to shrink that dependence gradually.
How small is the staff?
Code enforcement and zoning is one person. Water distribution is one person, plus five treatment-plant operators who each need at least three years to earn their state certification. The public works crew plows, sweeps, maintains inlets, signs and buildings, and is also the backup crew for water-main breaks and electric outages. Administration is four people covering billing, payroll, purchasing, power procurement, IT, Right-to-Know and communications. Cuts to these departments rarely remove a position; they remove the materials and hours the same people need to do the job.
Who sets the salaries?
The Borough has three bargaining units: police (bargained under Act 111), the electric line crew (IBEW Local 126), and public works and water together (AFSCME). Their wages, steps and benefits are set by those collective bargaining agreements; the remaining office staff follow pay schedules adopted by Council. The budget carries those contract wages — including the police agreement's 4% step for 2027, the final year of that contract — and the state-certified pension minimum. Council sets the number of positions; it does not set individual pay outside those agreements.
How we build the estimates
For routine lines (supplies, repairs, utilities, fuel, fees, most revenue), the 2027 figure starts from the average of the last several years of actual results, not last year alone. One year can be distorted by a single storm, a one-time repair, a vendor's billing timing or a vacancy; averaging smooths those out so the budget reflects what a normal year costs. The 2026 column is the September 30 year-to-date actual projected to year-end, except for items that are billed once a year.
On top of that base, lines with known changes are adjusted explicitly: contract wage steps (4%), health insurance (+5%), dental, vision and life insurance (+4%), the state-certified pension contribution, the hauler's contract, the new electric line crew, PJM capacity prices, and adopted rate or fee changes. Revenue works the same way: taxes and utility sales are projected from the rate, the assessed base and billed usage; volatile sources such as permits, fines and interest use multi-year averages so a single good year does not inflate the budget. Every line's note in the explorer says which method was used.
Why reserves, not just taxes?
Emergencies do not wait for the budget cycle. Hill Street's stabilization ($125,450) was paid from Capital Reserve the year the slope failed; a water-main break or a failed plant pump is handled the same way; the Electric reserve smooths power-market spikes so rates move in small steps. Capital Reserve is also where grant-match money comes from: most grants require a local share paid in cash up front, and having it on hand is what lets the Borough turn $690,000 of its own money into about $3 million of projects in 2027. The Reserve Policy sets minimums ($750,000 General Fund operating, $750,000 Capital, $750,000 Electric, $500,000 Water) and limits how much can be used in a year, so the money is there when it is needed and is rebuilt afterward.
Balanced means balanced (on a budgetary basis)
Every fund's resources — current revenue plus carryovers and interfund transfers — equal its expenditures. The General Fund uses no reserves in 2027. The Electric Fund draws $312,757 from its rate-stabilization reserve for the cost of standing up the in-house line crew; on the budget basis the reserve carries a remaining gap of roughly $90,000 in 2028 and begins rebuilding in 2029, sooner if the General Fund transfer is reduced. The Sewer Fund runs on $437,027 of carried-forward working capital, and the Capital Reserve Fund's $3.61 million is held as designated reserves, not spent.
Timeline
Proposed budget presented November 10, 2026 · 20-day public inspection · adoption by Council in December · tax and rate changes take effect January 1, 2027. Comments can be made at any Council meeting or to the Borough office at 318 E. Second Avenue.