Butler City Council may vote to advertise a draft of the city’s 2023 operating budget at its meeting Nov. 17, which reportedly does not include a tax increase.

Councilman Don Shearer said at Thursday’s City Council meeting that city clerk Mindy Gall balanced the budget so as not to need a tax hike for the city. He also said the cost of the operating budget has not yet been proposed, nor has the tax rate for fiscal year 2023 been solidified.

“Anybody who ever looks at the budget, it is a monster to try to review,” Shearer said. “In the middle of inflation, everything else we’ve been doing, (Mindy) figured out how to balance the budget without raising taxes.”

Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy said at the meeting that the council did not account for any proceeds from the sale of the Butler Area Sewer Authority in next year’s budget. While BASA’s board of directors voted at its October meeting to accept the Pennsylvania American Water Company’s $231.5 million offer for the authority and its assets, which City Council and Butler Township Commissioners also supported, Dandoy said the sale is still in the negotiations process.

“One of the things that I think both (Butler) Township and the city representatives, as we go through negotiations, that we agree on is don’t count your chickens,” Dandoy said. “We have to proceed as we normally do, and that’s what we will do.”

The next City Council meeting will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 17.