COURT HOUSE – At its second virtual governing body meeting April 21, Middle Township adopted its $22.3 million 2020 budget, which calls for no increase in the $0.483 local property tax rate.
The budget the committee approved was prepared and introduced before the COVID-19 lockdown. The movement of the governing body meetings to a virtual environment delayed the approval for two weeks, as new procedures were approved and authorized by the state to ensure public access to budget documents and an opportunity to participate in a public hearing.
Chief Financial Officer Susan Quinones credited additional ratables and a growth in non-tax revenues for allowing the township to avoid a tax increase. She also pointed to expense savings on health insurance benefits, the use of the Joint Insurance Fund premium credits toward the 2020 insurance coverage costs, and the use of $309,224 more from the township’s surplus account.
The fact that some of those revenue sources will likely be negatively impacted by the pandemic is something the township will deal with by carefully managing expenses. Municipalities may not be able to project the crisis’s full impact on their sources of revenue for several weeks, as business recovery plans are developed and strategies to ease lockdown requirements emerge.
Quinones noted that only 26% of a property owner’s total tax bill is attributed to the local purpose tax imposed by the township. Another 14% is accounted for by the county tax, 5% by fire districts, and the largest contributor to the total tax bill is the school tax, at 55%.
The township is using 78.5% of its surplus balance to allow for no increase in the municipal property tax. Quinones showed that this percentage was in line with what the township has done for each budget since 2013. Using surplus places a burden on the municipality to manage the budget in a manner that will allow the surplus used to be repaid at the end of the year. The township has managed to accomplish that goal and to even grow the surplus each year since 2015.
The largest areas of the budget remain consistent year to year. In 2020 police salaries and pension payments constitute 29% of the appropriations. Employee health insurance is 13%, debt service 5%, and workers’ compensation insurance is 3%. Those items combined represent 50% of annual appropriations.
The township sewer utility budget was helped by an increase in fees adopted this year for residential customers. An increase on commercial customers was imposed the previous year.
Fee changes are anticipated to bring in $300,000 in new revenue badly needed as the aging sewer system undergoes what will probably be years of modernization. A project to improve the infrastructure of the township’s 22 pump stations is already underway.
Quinones noted that after two years in which fee adjustments by the county Municipal Utilities Authority totaled an unexpected $725,000, this year the township received a credit of $236,000. Mayor Timothy Donohue said the hard work of the finance department and the business administrator meant the township was able to hold the line on taxes in a difficult financial climate for many taxpayers.
2020 will mark the third straight year where the local purpose tax rate in the township will remain unchanged.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
