Erie County Council Passes 2013 Budget - WICU12/WSEE Erie, PA News, Sports, Weather and Events

There were three key parts coming from Tuesday night's meeting. First, there will be no increase in taxes. This is the third year in a row that County Council has been able to do this.

Council also passed a budget that was more than a million dollars less than what was originally proposed. The budget came in around $87.8 million, down from $89 million, because of  millage going down due to reassessment.

And the council also approved the addition of six new call takers at the 911 Center, who will be phased in, due to the increase of call volume.

Fatica says  part of the reason council was able to not increase taxes was because employees agreed to a pay freeze for the past two years. He believes taxpayers will be happy with the passing of this budget.

"I think they're going to say you did your job, that's what you're supposed to do," said Fatica. "Its easy to say we're going to raise taxes. The more difficult and more  consciousness way is to say where can we make this work, how can we make this work. And that's what we did, we made it work within the framework given to us."

Now those employees that agreed to a pay freeze, will be receiving a 3.25% raise that has been worked into the budget.