Nesquehoning residents should expect to see a slight increase on their 2017 borough taxes, but a savings on both their sanitation and sewer bills.

During Wednesday's meeting, borough council adopted its preliminary budget, which calls for a 1.3-mill tax hike, bringing the total millage to 18.55.This means that a $100,000 home assessed at $50,000 will see an increase in real estate taxes of $65 next year.Councilman Frank Jacobs said that the total budget equates to $1,799,458.48, or 16.5 mills to the general fund, 1.75 for fire protection and 0.3 for recreation."The 1.3 mills goes into the general fund to give us some money for highway reconstructions," Jacobs said, adding that the additional millage equates to about $73,837.But, he said that residents will also get a break to help offset the higher tax rate."In lieu of the higher millage, every property owner will be getting $120 total reduction in sanitation and sewage," he said, adding that this reduction is for homeowners, commercial and industrial properties. "It's across the board. That is what we did to try and help a lot of people."The reduction means that residents will save $60 a year on each of the two utility bills.Council President David Hawk said the reduction is due to the sewer and sanitation funds being healthy at this time."We need money for streets so we're giving people a break on those two items (sanitation and sewer) as an offset to raising the millage for streets," he said.The borough passed both the preliminary budget and the resolution reducing the sanitation and sewer bills unanimously.Council will pass the final budget at its December meeting.In a related budget matter, council approved the 2017 sewer budget, which was prepared by Carbon Engineering.The total receipts for the budget is $775,457.50 and expenses are $698,255 for a total balance of $77,202.50.Council also approved a motion to have BCIU for the borough's tax services for bills for the real estate and per capita taxes.Councilwoman Rosemary Porembo said that the company will do billing, mailing and tracking for an estimated cost of $4,357.