Even as Greenville council members discussed their proposed budget for next year, the town's economic recovery coordinator described how the current year's budget is on track.

"The borough has done a very good job of controlling costs," Joe Hohman of RDM Inc. said Tuesday night. He thanked council and department heads for keeping expenditures down and said the borough brought in $188,000 more than it spent through October.

Revenues for that time were about $2.6 million, he said, and the borough spent $2.4 million.

The borough's $3.6 million spending plan for 2004 calls for keeping property taxes the same at 31.5 mills, and the earned income tax rate at 1.7 percent for residents and 1.5 percent for nonresidents who work in the borough. The earned income tax is required by the state-mandated fiscal-recovery plan. The state got involved in borough finances in 2002 when Greenville council, facing a deficit of $1.5 million, applied for Act 47, Pennsylvania's loan program for economically distressed communities.

A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of a home's assessed value; assessments are the 1970 market value. At 31.5 mills, a home assesed at $15,000 carries a tax bill of $473. One mill brings the borough about $39,000.

The 2004 tentative budget includes a 2.1 percent pay increase for police, firefighters and other borough employees. According to the current contracts, in which all employees took a pay freeze, unions were able to renegotiate their wages if the borough saw better financial times.

Borough Manager Vance Oakes called the 2.1 percent wage hikes cost-of-living adjustments.

Also, Oakes said, certain line items in the budget may appear to be significantly greater than this year's numbers due to a change in borough accounting. According to recommendations from RDM, the borough stopped accounting for health benefits and workers compensation payments in a separate budget area, Oakes said. For example, in 2004 all police benefits are included in the police department's budget, he said.

Council Vice President David Henderson thanked department heads for their spending habits throughout 2003.

"Thank you for keeping the departments under budget," he said.

Council will act on the spending plan at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Greenville budget at a glance