In a meeting lasting barely 15 minutes, Coplay Borough Council approved its 2015 budget.

Councilman Bill Leiner Jr. cast the sole dissenting vote but made no comment at the meeting about his reasons. He also did not comment during the first and second readings of the budget Dec. 2 and Dec. 9 respectively.

"There is absolutely no reason to raise taxes in Coplay," he said after the meeting.

The budget sets the tax rate at 4.39 mills, which raises taxes by 0.3 mills. This includes a 0.38-mill library tax and a 0.38 emergency services tax.

Councilman Joseph Groller who chairs the budget committee, said the increase amounts to an additional $42 in tax annually for a resident whose home is assessed at the borough average of $141,900.

"Anyone with financial acumen can review this budget and easily conclude with a question: why are they raising taxes?" Leiner said in a prepared statement emailed to The Press after the meeting.

Asked after the meeting where he would have cut spending to avoid a tax increase, Leiner had no answer.

"I have never voted to raise taxes," Leiner said in his prepared statement. In his prepared statement he said he would need "clear and compelling reasons" to raise taxes.

"In my 17 years as an elected official, every vote I take has one group foremost in my mind – the taxpayers," he said in his prepared statement.

When asked why he didn't speak up at any of the public meetings on behalf of the taxpayer, he said, "They [council] wouldn't listen to me."

He continued in his prepared statement.

"If I believed I could convince any three members on Coplay council to understand this tax hike is not necessary, I would have tried," he said. "It is the senior citizen taxpayer, who has a modest, fixed income struggling to pay bills. When I ran for re-election for mayor in 2001 I spoke to many seniors in their living rooms in Coplay. Many were struggling to make ends meet. This is why as mayor I voted to tie break against an unnecessary tax hike in 2001; and in 2003 vetoed the Council budget so they would lower the proposed tax hike, which they did."

Other council members also had no comment about the budget though Councilman Charles Sodl did congratulate Groller and the budget committee on a job well done.