Carlisle, Pa., Makes Room for a Social Media Manager

(TNS) -- The Borough of Carlisle hopes to hire a social media and website manager in 2017 to be more thorough in “responding and communicating with residents who increasingly are communicating via social media,” said Matt Candland, Carlisle’s borough manager.

The position will pay $50,000 annually with about $25,000 in benefits, according to Candland. It will be added as an annual expense to the general fund in the borough’s 2017 budget.

The proposed 2017 budget would double the borough’s fire tax from 22 to 44 cents. The revenue from the fire tax increase will also go toward the fire department’s operational expenses, which for 2017 are projected at $962,165. The revenue would also be used toward a fire truck that was bought this year and another that will be purchased in 2017.

However, Candland said the fire tax is essentially a property tax, so it would open up revenue to help pay for costs in the general fund, such as the new position.

“I think it’s become clear to the borough that one of the most common ways our residents are communicating and would like to communicate with us is by social media,” Candland said. “One of the primary responsibilities would be to staff social media efforts. You can’t go and post once a week, it’s got to be someone doing it fairly actively.”

The social media and public information manager position will be advertised in “early 2017” and likely filled by “the middle of 2017,” Candland said.

Tax rates

Carlisle’s current tax rates are $3.06 per $1,000 of assessed valuation for general purposes, and a fire tax of 22 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, for a total real estate tax rate of $3.28 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, according to Norman Butts, the borough’s finance director.

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The rates proposed for 2017 would see the $3.06 for general purposes remain the same, so the total real estate tax rate would be $3.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

Butts defined assessed valuation as the “taxable value of a property that is determined by the county assessor.”

An online version of the proposed budget is available on the borough’s website, carlislepa.org.

If Carlisle Borough Council approves the budget during its meeting Thursday, it would go into effect Jan. 1.

©2016 The Sentinel (Carlisle, Pa.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.