{"id":313969,"date":"2026-10-25T13:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T13:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313969\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T13:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T13:16:08","slug":"voters-in-two-lackawanna-county-municipalities-to-decide-on-local-referendums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313969\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters in two Lackawanna County municipalities to decide on local referendums"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voters in two Lackawanna County municipalities will decide on Election Day whether to amend a city charter and raise property taxes to pay for an additional emergency medical services technician.<\/p>\n

Residents of Carbondale and Scott Twp., respectively, will decide on the questions in this year\u2019s general election on Nov. 3.\n<\/p>\n

Carbondale<\/p>\n

The ballot question asks voters whether they want to amend Section C9-2B of Article IX of the city\u2019s Home Rule Charter to allow the mayor, if they are serving in the capacity of managing director, to carry out their duties as managing director while campaigning for office. It would also change any masculine pronouns in the section to general pronouns.\n<\/p>\n

Under the current charter, first adopted in 1977, any city employee who files a petition for election to a partisan political office and does not withdraw shall be required to take a leave of absence for the duration of the campaign. If not elected, the employee shall promptly be restored to the previously held position without losing any rights, according to the current charter language.\n<\/p>\n

An approved referendum would mean the mayor would not have to take a leave of absence as managing director while campaigning.<\/p>\n

The issue arose<\/a> when Mayor Michele Bannon, then the city clerk, had to take a leave of absence for several months from her longtime position while campaigning to run as mayor, which officials said created a gap in city leadership. Bannon currently serves as both mayor and managing director.<\/p>\n

City Solicitor Fred Moase said the change affecting the managing director would enable the city\u2019s day-to day operations to continue uninterrupted. Other city employees would still be required to take a leave of absence while campaigning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be an issue, and that\u2019s why we want to make sure that there is somebody \u2026 able to run the day-to-day operations of the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Carbondale last amended its Home Rule Charter in 2004, when residents approved a referendum allowing the mayor to fill the position of managing director if he or she met the qualifications. Amending the charter \u2014 the city\u2019s governing document \u2014 can be done only by referendum or petition from residents, according to officials.<\/p>\n

Scott Twp.<\/p>\n

Voters will decide whether the township supervisors should levy an additional .065-mills to property taxes to pay for ambulance and emergency medical technician services in the township.\n<\/p>\n

The tax increase is in addition to the 1-mill increase voters approved<\/a> in 2020 to help pay for local ambulance service at Justus Volunteer Fire Company. Supervisors Chairman Michael Giannetta said the increase approved in 2020 pays for the EMT at Justus to work Monday through Sunday from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Officials had to lower the millage rate in this year\u2019s referendum due to the countywide reassessment this year. The county, municipalities and school districts were required to adjust their tax rates so the total amount of real estate taxes each collects is the same as before reassessment.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

At the time, Justus\u2019 EMS and ambulance service was running a deficit of roughly $10,000 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an EMT being on duty during the day.\n<\/p>\n

The referendum would allow a paid EMT to work another shift in the evening or overnight at Scott Twp. Hose Company. Both EMTs would respond to calls throughout the township.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to use the funds to help Scott pay for a paid EMT like Justus has,\u201d Giannetta said. \u201cWe want them to complement each other, not compete with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extra mill, which would bring in $48,000 a year, would add another $15 a month to the tax bill of a homeowner whose property is assessed at $15,000, he said. A mill is a $1 tax on every $1,000 in assessed property value.\n<\/p>\n

Giannetta said that with fewer volunteer EMTs, having paid EMTs at both fire companies in the township ensures lives are saved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said this at township meetings: I think ambulance protection is more important than fire protection,\u201d he said. \u201cYour house can be rebuilt if it burns down, but if somebody has a heart attack, you\u2019re not coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters in two Lackawanna County municipalities will decide on Election Day whether to amend a city charter and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3099,836,201,182,139,28,50,3103,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-313969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-carbondale","tag-election","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-politics","tag-scott-township","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}