EASTON, Pa. — In the first of several reviews for the city’s 2025 budget, Easton officials on Tuesday discussed raising parking meter rates and the impact it could have on city services.
Increasing city parking meter rates to $3 an hour to help fund new hires was among some of the balancing acts highlighted to keep the property tax rate stable.
The evening’s analysis largely focused on human resources, the police department and planning and codes budgeting and revenues.
Mayor Sal Panto Jr.’s proposed 2026 budget is set at $38,812,880, a slight increase from 2025, though property tax rates would remain at 24.95 mills for another year.
Under that rate, the owner of a home valued for tax purposes at $100,000 would again pay $2,495 a year in city property tax.
Health care increases
Human Resources Manager Estelle Gehringer said one of the largest increases in her department will be associated with health care costs.
“We're seeing an increase of 20 percent — that's $936,000," Gehringer said. "In 2024 we signed with a new broker, BSI. BSI continues to give us benefit information, which ranges from data to resources.
"It's helping us manage a little bit better and understand where our costs are really at versus assumptions of cost.”
Gehringer said tier changes to health care would add categories for employees plus spouses and employees plus children, in addition to the existing employee and family categories.
While the increase is not anticipated to jump at that rate year-over-year, City Administrator Luis Campos said, “We possibly could, as the trend is going on, we see that our health care costs, are, in fact, increasing.”
Salaries in human resources would see a 3% increase, which would be offset by a decrease in legal costs in arbitration for police and fire contracts.
Gehringer said 2026 will see a new electrician hired for the Department of Public Works, alongside the elimination of a third solicitor, a Department of Community and Economic Development program administrator, and a third finance clerk.
Pay adjustments have also been allocated for the IT department, Department of Public Works, finance, codes and a $2,000 increase for directors, not including police and fire chiefs or fire deputies.
Police increase over $600K
Police Chief Carl Scalzo said his department will see a total budget increase of $612,896 in 2026 — again, largely because of health care costs, in addition to an 11.69% increase in salaries based on the current collective bargaining agreement.
The department’s traffic division saw a total budget increase of 0.76%, with an operational decrease of $5,973.
Scalzo said the department’s overall budget increase of 4.5% can be partially attributed to hiring five new officers who will join the ranks in December.
The chief said expects to need more recruits in the coming year.
“We're also going into next year with at least two more vacancies and another expected two through the course of the year,” Scalzo said.
“So we're going to have four vacancies to start the year, on top of the five coming out of the academy. With those comes costs for the academy, which is just around $6,000 per student.”
Revenue for the department is expected to increase 6.72% for the traffic division, in particular with a $20,000 bump in police service charges and a $10,508 jump in Easton Area School District crossing guards.
Councilman Frank Pintabone suggested officers could use downtime on the job to help focus on quality-of-life issues and parking enforcement issues, with several other council members agreeing that parking remains a hot-button issue.
Scalzo said that as the city was designed without cars in mind, such enforcement requires balancing reasonableness with safety.
While police could increase attention on parking violations, Scalzo said, it could also create more problems, including a decrease in available parking.
“So I guess the answer to your question is, yep, we can absolutely do it," Scalzo said. "I think we just would have to do it strategically to make sure that we're still balancing.”
Planning and Codes
Planning and Codes Director Dwayne Tillman said his department will see a slight uptick in permit and plan revenue and residential rental permits.
“Residential rental permits are going to increase just because of all the new residential units that are coming online if everything goes as planned for next year," Tillman said.
He said he "was being conservative with my numbers, and everything was built out and finished by 2026 which it probably won't be."
“We're looking at 509 rental units coming online," he said. "But I was conservative with 300 as far as an increase on permanent rental fees, which equates to about $20,000 to $23,000 in rental permits.”
As for expenses, Tillman said there should be regular contractual increases with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and $35,000 more to cover key code inspections.
Parking problems and solutions
Campos and Finance Director Mark Lysynecky briefly touched on a parking sensitivity analysis, with Campos stating council could contemplate the data before making a decision in the future.
Suggestions to increase the Third Street and Fourth Street garages could see a balanced budget at $2.50 per hour.
Pintabone followed up with a suggestion to increase all city parking meters to $3 per hour, and setting garage rates at $2.25 per hour, which could bring up revenue by $286,000 per year.
He also advised an increase in the city’s transfer tax by 0.5% for those buying and selling a home, which would potentially yield $147,000 more.
According to Pintabone, those funds could go toward a new revenue agent in the finance department, a new police officer and a new full-time parking enforcement officer.
In addition, it would allocate more funding for the city’s comprehensive plan, he said.
In all, Pintabone said, those changes would see $318,200 in expenses, versus $333,200 in revenue.
“So there's a slight $15,000 positive if they’re doing this," he said. "I think it's important that we look out past this year, past next year, and even the third year vision of where we're going and what we're going to need,” Pintabone said.
“I don't think cutting services or balancing a budget just enough to get by to cover the expenses is the way to go.
"We need to start looking at the future and preparing for the future, so we're not faced with double-digit tax increases in year four or five or six, which I think would really hurt the people.”
While Panto, along with Vice Mayor Ken Brown and Councilwoman Taiba Sultana, questioned the measure — some described it as a tax increase.
Sultana suggested a community advocate hire would be preferable. Pintabone advised council that his revenue prediction was a low estimate that could produce more funding for the future.
And that, he said, it's necessary to keeping a balanced budget while maintaining services.
“I think we need to start making these investments into the staff and the city, whether it's software or whatever, going forward, to maintain what we're seeing now, what we all love,” Pintabone said.
Additional public meetings and workshops are intended through Dec. 10, when the 2026 budget will get final consideration.
