The 2010 budget approved for Columbia Borough Monday retains the current tax rate and "empties the reserves."

Council was deadlocked until Mayor Leo Lutz cast the vote in favor of the budget that reduces spending to $5,333,399, or $77,000 less than 2009.

"The reason why I voted for the budget is because it does what it needs to do. I still don't understand exactly why two of the finance committee members (who helped develop the budget) ultimately decided to vote against it, but because of the way the vote went, the final decision fell to me," Lutz said Tuesday.

"This budget has no increase in taxes," Lutz said. "If council needs to further reduce costs, then council should sharpen their pencils during the upcoming year."

Only six members of council were eligible to vote on the budget because Vern Detz, who observed the meeting Monday, resigned from his borough seat to begin serving as a member of Columbia school board. The seat Detz held will be filled by Anna Gerlitzki when council meets to reorganize at 7 p.m. Jan. 4.

Detz said council, by deciding not to impose a tax increase, is only putting off the necessity of a major tax increase one or two years down the road.

"This budget empties the reserve. If something comes up, where will we get the money we need?" Detz said. "There should be tougher questions being asked about cuts and layoffs … because if we don't have a modest tax increase now, we're going to need to have a much bigger one later."

The 2010 budget, which is balanced down to the nickel between expenditures and income, expects to take in $2,548,960 in property taxes, $125,000 in real estate transfer taxes and $700,000 in earned income tax from the state.

The borough's millage rate, or the percentage of property value used to determine property tax, will hold steady in Columbia at 8 mills. This means that in 2010, the owner of a $100,000 property will pay $800 in property tax. The owner of a $200,000 property will pay $1,600.

Though Columbia will be spending $2,097,470 on its police department and $521,497 on highway maintenance, one of the biggest issues facing the borough has to do with electricity.

According to published reports, on Jan. 1 electric bills in Pennsylvania will rise by an estimated 37 percent when rate caps expire for more than 1 million customers of PPL Corp., the state's second-largest electric utility.

A year later, reports state, rate caps will expire for an additional 3 million-plus customers of Allegheny Power, Metropolitan Edison, Peco Energy and Pennsylvania Electric.

Mary Barninger, a council member, said Tuesday the borough is bracing for the expected increase in the cost of electricity.

She said Columbia does not belong to joint local government negotiating programs like the Lancaster County Co-operative Purchasing Board.

"We were in a similar program up in Harrisburg, but we just didn't realize the benefits we hoped for," Barninger said. "We're currently in the process of searching out other opportunities while we wait and see how, exactly, the upcoming change might affect us."

She said council balanced the 2010 budget by transferring $504,643 out of the borough's unreserved fund.

The move, Barninger said, leaves $842,000 in the unreserved fund.