Volant has until today to respond to Right-to-Know request

Nov. 27—Volant officials as of Monday had not responded to The News' Right-to-Know request for refusing to share the borough's proposed 2024 budget, which calls for a 57-percent property tax increase.

The News filed the request on Nov. 18 and the borough has five business days or until Tuesday to respond. The borough can ask for a 30-calendar day extension.

Council during its Nov. 14 meeting unanimously proposed a budget to increase the tax rate from seven mils to 11 mils. If the budget is finalized during council's 6:30 p.m. Dec. 12 meeting, the owner of a property assessed at $100,000 who paid $700 this year will pay $1,100 next year.

After the budget was proposed, council Vice President Glenn Smith — sitting in for an absent President Howard Moss — referred questions from The News to borough secretary Carmen Ortiz Brown.

Ortiz Brown would not answer questions, but scheduled a Nov. 21 meeting with The News. When The News arrived, a sign on the borough building indicated the office was closed for the week.

Ortiz Brown also would not share a copy of the budget with The News, which then responded with the Right to Know request.

In a five-paragraph memo taped to the borough building door last week, Moss wrote that 2023 was a very financially challenging year.

"We have been struggling while keeping the deficit budget to a minimum," Howard wrote. "First, salting and plowing roads in the winter has been our biggest and most challenging expense. Second, an increase in public utilities has not helped the deficit situation either."

The borough purchased a legal notice at The News saying the budget can be viewed by the public at the borough building and Lawrence County Law Library at the courthouse in New Castle. A spokeswoman at the law library said nothing was available as of Monday. Ortiz Brown and Councilwoman Deb Lakin both have said the budget by law can't be viewed by the public until it's adopted, which is false and no such law exists.

Moss did not share any dollar amounts in his memo but indicated the borough has faced even more challenges with inflation during 2023.

"All of the day-to-day operation expenses have increased this year without an increase in the revenues," he wrote.

Council during its Nov. 14 meeting also proposed increasing the base water rate from $35 to $40 for 2024.

"As for the water, an increase in regulations for daily testing has caused the expenses to increase, thus, causing more manpower to analyze and report the results to the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection)."

Moss wrote there is no way around the tax increase and council's finance committee will monitor expenses to control the budget this upcoming year.

"We understand that increasing taxes is a huge burden on homeowners," he added.