SANATOGA PA – Property tax rates in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township will remain unchanged for 2010 if the municipality’s $5.43 million budget, which was tentatively approved last night (Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009) by the township Board of Commissioners, is adopted in final form next month.
To avoid a tax hike, commissioners indicated they planned to withdraw almost $761,000 from township savings – called its fund balance – and apply it to close the gap between $4.67 million in revenue Lower Pottsgrove thinks it will bring in next year, and the actual cost of its operations.
The township base tax rate in the current year is 1.958 mills, or about $1.96 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. It also charges .34 mills (34 cents per $1,000) as a dedicated real estate tax for fire services. On a home in Lower Pottsgrove assessed at $200,000, its owners by year-end will have paid about $460 in township property taxes.
Neither the tentative budget or its accompanying tax rates can be considered finished until their final adoption. That board vote is scheduled for Dec. 17 (2009).
Commissioners’ Vice President Jonathan Spadt acknowledged the amount being withdrawn from the fund balance was substantial, but noted “we saved money for a rainy day, and in terms of what’s happening with the economy it’s raining pretty hard right now.” The board is committed, he said, to rebuild the fund balance in coming years.
When the 2009 budget was being debated last December, township Manager Rodney Hawthorne estimated the fund balance then at about $1.4 million. Money withdrawn to balance the 2009 budget, and later supplemental payments made to the Pottstown Regional Public Library and other local non-profits, lowered that amount. Even with the contemplated transfer for 2010, the fund balance should still contain several hundred thousand dollars during the next 12 months.
Anticipated 2010 revenues show declines from the current year in almost every category, reflecting the state of the local economy.
Real estate isn’t selling well, so real estate transfer taxes are expected to total $100,000 in 2010, less than half the amount budgeted this year. Fewer people have jobs, and others are earning less at the jobs they have, so earned income taxes collected from wages paid to employees are expected to be 15 percent lower than budgeted this year.
Overall general operating expenses have risen slightly, about $49,000 or less than 1 percent.
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