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Salary Raise Approved for Borough Tax Collector

The position gets an extra $2,400 per year.

Baldwin Borough's real estate tax collector for the next four years—whomever that may be—is getting a raise.

The Baldwin Council voted, 4-2, to approve the salary increase at a special meeting on Friday night.

Gail Dobson Mikush, the borough's current real estate tax collector, requested the raise, which she called a "cost of living increase" in a letter addressed to the council. Mikush requested to move her position's salary from $10,000 per year to $12,400. Read more about her letter here.

Motioning first to approve a different salary arrangement for the collector position was Councilman Bob Collet, who wanted a staggered increase that would start at 18 percent in 2014 ($11,800) and move up 2 percent every year through 2017 ($12,000 to $12,200 to $12,400).

Councilman Larry Brown seconded Collet's motion, but it was defeated by a 4-2 vote with only those two men supporting it.

A second motion was then made by John Ferris (and seconded by Michael Stelmasczyk) to accept Mikush's request of $12,400 per year starting in 2014. Fellow Councilmen John Conley and David Depretis supported Ferris and Stelmasczyk to pass the motion, 4-2. (Brown and Collet dissented.)

Councilman Ed Moeller and Mayor Alexander R. Bennett Jr. were absent.

Click here for more Baldwin Borough news.

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Kimberly Waigand February 17, 2013 at 05:13 am
Good for Gail...she deserves it!
old man February 17, 2013 at 02:43 pm
She was only asking for a $ 2,400 dollar a year raise, why in the world would anybody want to spread that out until 2017. If she does a good job give it to her. Pay it from the savings from turning out neighborhood street lights.
JB February 18, 2013 at 02:19 pm
What kind of cost of living raise is over 19%? Only in politics is the cost of living 19% or more. A normal cost of living is 2 to 4 % at most. It is all of these types of raises that ultimately cause a shortage and the need to raise taxes on everyone. This is a part-time job, if you don't like it leave. I am sure there are plenty of qualified folks that would love an extra 10,000 a year for a part-time job.
bd February 18, 2013 at 03:12 pm
I read the previous article on this and saw that the position of tax collector has not had any increase for 8 years. This increase was long overdue.
JB February 19, 2013 at 01:04 pm
Let me break it down. That is a $200 dollar a month raise for a part-time job. Plus, local taxes are taken out automatically by employers now. So if anything, the job has gotten much easier. I am trying to be reasonable here, but getting a 20% raise is a bit much, especially when the job is getting easier and the economy is the way it is. Most other businesses are cutting back, not giving out 20% raises. Plus, I don’t appreciate there being a “Special meeting” to vote on the raise, not being discussed in the regularly scheduled meeting is just plain sneaky.
Robert Edward Healy, III (Editor) February 19, 2013 at 02:37 pm
JB, this was discussed at some public meetings, but no action was ever taken until the special meeting. By law, the council had to make a decision by the end of Friday, so I believe that that's why it scrambled to set up something.

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either e-mail jte1327@verizon.net or call 412-884-0984
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thanks Robert
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Things are much clearer now. Interesting audio clip posted on Patch today along with new article.
cc June 7, 2013 at 06:24 am
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Thank you. Yesterday was a hard day for me.
cc June 8, 2013 at 09:15 am
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Ned Hardt June 9, 2013 at 12:54 am
We understand, Bob, it's the new system, not US nor our abilities. Just a shame it takes so long butRead More there HAS been progress. Looks like they need to next work on making the "flag as inappropriate" button work, {sigh} Hey, Margaret, Patch knocked computer off IE AGAIN in the middle of posting this, it's not just you---probably quite a few of us. I know of another website that had similar problems, but finally got it fixed. Hang in there! :-)
Ned Hardt June 9, 2013 at 12:56 am
Only took three tries to get that one to post, haha!
Margaret French June 12, 2013 at 09:23 am
LOL Ned. I am still getting knocked off. I use msn.
Robert Edward Healy, III (Editor) June 5, 2013 at 10:59 am
Baldwin Dad, hang in there with us. We're aware of the issues, and our IT team is working to fixRead More them ASAP.
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That is the same message I got for days. It was so frustrating.