Taxes will be reduced by one-fourths of a mill in Summit Hill, according to adoption of a preliminary budget by the borough council on Monday.

This amounts to a reduction of $25 per $10,000 valuation in real estate. If your home is assessed at $50,000, and the assessment is taxed on 50 percent valuation, your savings with the decrease in taxes on that residence will be $62.50.Presently the borough taxes property at 15.85 mills. The new budget has the total tax rate at 15.6 mills.The tax rate is based on 13.6 mills for general purposes, 1.4 mills for street lighting, and a half mill for fire allocation.Jesse Walck, president of the council, said the decrease was accomplished because collections were increased, producing higher revenue; there was refinancing of some bond issues; and some indebtedness was paid off early during the year.Final adoption of the budget is planned at the Nov. 24 meeting of the council.The council is balanced at $1,461,535, which is actually more than the 2014 budget. The present budget has receipts and expenses listed at $1,410,305.There will be another equation added when the budget is adopted, Walck said. The borough council plans to take over the Summit Hill Water Authority effective Jan. 1, and it will become the Summit Hill Water Department. The Water Department budget is tentatively listed at $313,991 for 2015.In 2014, the council had three items in its budget which positively affected the 2015 budget.They were extra principal payments to the new building loan, totaling $8,548; early payment of a building loan, totaling $47,452; and interest on that building loan, which rendered a savings of $3,200.