Faced with an anticipated rise in health insurance and workers' compensation insurance, among other costs, Jim Thorpe borough council knew it would likely impose a real estate tax increase next year after holding the line in 2015.

How much the tax increase would be was the main point of discussion at a special council meeting held Wednesday night.After a short executive session, council unanimously voted for a 1-mill tax increase that would generate $97,866 of additional revenue for the borough.Council President Greg Strubinger was quick to point out that the budget will remain open until January and the decision made Wednesday could be changed before 2015 ends."When we get more concrete numbers on health insurance costs, we could always have less of a tax increase," he said. "We're looking at different providers to see if we could get a better deal."The tax increase was not the only revenue addition council approved Wednesday. It also unanimously voted to raise the cost of parking at a downtown meter from $0.50 per hour to $1 per hour.According to Mayor Michael Sofranko, that not only puts the borough in line with other destination communities, but also generates an additional $60,000 per year based on recent parking statistics."The main thing is that we are in line with other towns that have meters," Strubinger said. "Maybe we should have raised it by a quarter a couple years ago."The moves bring Jim Thorpe's tentative 2016 budget to $2.109 million and would give the borough a $50,757 fund balance at the end of the year."It's unfortunate as we always try to hold the line," Strubinger said of the tax increase. "Health insurance and equipment costs are going up in all of our departments."Sewer, water and garbage rates will remain the same in 2016.The sewer rate is calculated on the water usage and every 1,000 gallons costs $21.69.As for the water rate, the first 1,000 gallons used per month cost $27.69.Jim Thorpe also collects a 0.5-mill fire tax, 0.0055-mill occupational tax, $5 per capita tax, $52 local services tax and a 1 percent earned income and realty transfer tax.The final adoption of the budget is scheduled for Dec. 10.