Council approves 2026 budget with no property tax bump for 11th straight year

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It’s official. At its final meeting of the year on Monday, Dec. 15, Lebanon City Council unanimously passed an ordinance locking in a 2026 property tax rate with no increase.

Next year will be the 11th straight without a city real estate tax hike.

The ordinance keeps a millage rate that translates to a $4.581 tax bill for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. The average assessed value of a city property is $104,636, which results in a $479 annual bill.

Last month, council approved an $18,099,057 budget for 2026, balanced by $15,235,353 in anticipated revenue and a $2,863,253 surplus carryover from 2025, and it preliminarily approved the 2026 millage rate.

Council also gave final approval to an ordinance increasing annual residential rental licensing and inspection fees. The annual fee for rental units will go from $40 to $60, and the annual rooming house unit fee from $20 to $30. This is the first increase since the rental licensing program was started in 2006, according to Mayor Sherry Capello.

The fees cover the cost of enforcing and maintaining housing safety standards in the city and the staff needed for record keeping and processing license renewal applications.

In its final legislative act of the year, council preliminarily approved an ordinance to establish fees for electronic payments to the city. Capello noted that many municipal governments charge convenience fees for online payments in order to cover credit and debit card processing fees.

Simply absorbing these fees as a cost of the city doing business means that all city taxpayers pay them, whether or not they make online payments, Capello said at a pre-council meeting earlier this month. The proposed fees will ensure that only those taking advantage of online payments will pay the additional transaction costs.

Capello said that the proposed basic fee will be the same as charged by the City of Lebanon Authority for online water and sewer payments, 3.75% with a $2 minimum.

Outgoing council member honored

Council and Capello honored outgoing council member Joseph Morales, who was attending his last meeting after nine years of service to the city.

Capello appointed Morales in September 2016 to fill the last 15 months of the unexpired term of Anthony Matula. He was then elected to consecutive four-year terms, during which he served four years as council chair. Morales chose not to run for a third term.

“As mayor, I valued councilor Morales’ perspective and leadership,” Capello said. “I always knew his decisions were guided by what was best for the community, never by personal interests.”

Morales said that it had “been an honor to work with council and the mayor for all these years.”

As to Capello, who has been mayor during his entire time on council, he said, “I interviewed (for the position) just to work with the mayor. In my many years in the military, I got to see a lot of leaders, good and bad, and the mayor always exhibited excellent leadership qualities.

“After service with the federal government, the state, the county, and now at the city level, I’m finished.”

Online applications and payments are coming

Director of administration Melissa Quinones and community and economic development administrator Janelle Groh demonstrated the city’s new online payment system from Tyler Technologies, a developer of software for governmental organizations.

Applications for permits, licenses, and renewals, along with payments, will soon be able to be submitted online by going to the city’s website, or directly to the city’s online payment portal.

A one-time online account registration will be required, but people who already have an account with the City of Lebanon Authority to pay their water bill online are already registered account holders, Quinones said.

Quinones stressed that online applications and payments are entirely optional. Payments by check and applications will still be accepted by mail or in person at City Hall.

An online demonstration of the new payment and application system will also be available on the city’s website, lebanonpa.org.

Other business before city council

• Through Nov. 30, with the budget year 92% complete, the mayor reported that year-to-date revenues and expenses were at 108% and 83%, respectively, of 2025 budget projections.
• The mayor informed council that she has reappointed director of administration-assistant to the mayor Melissa Quinones and finance officer Melissa Weihrauch as representative and alternate, respectively, to the Lebanon County Tax Collection Committee for a one-year term, effective Jan. 1.
• The mayor informed council that she has reappointed Jerome Kalinoski to the city’s Shade Tree Commission for a five-year term, effective Nov. 30. He was first appointed in 1997.

Next Lebanon City Council meetings

City Council’s annual organizational meeting will be held on Monday, Jan. 5 at 4:45 p.m.

City Council’s next pre-council planning meeting will be on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 4:45 p.m. The next regular monthly council meeting will be on Monday, Jan. 26 at 6:30 p.m.

All meetings are open to the public and will be held in the City Hall multi-purpose room, 735 Cumberland St., first floor, Lebanon. Meetings are streamed live on YouTube here.