PETERSBURG – Upper Township Committee passed the 2023 municipal budget, which includes a 2.8-cent tax rate increase.
“Yours is one of the smaller increases,” auditor Leon Costello said at the March 27 committee meeting.
Costello said he has seen an 8.4-cent tax rate in another municipality but did not elaborate. He said the Upper Township budget had not changed since it was introduced a month earlier. The budget passed 4-0, with Committeeman Curtis Corson absent due to attending a county Agriculture Development Board meeting.
Last month, Costello called 2023 “a year like no other,” describing the effects of a 22% increase in health care costs statewide. Township Administrator Gary DeMarzo also cited pension costs, inflation, and rising utility costs as adding to the cost of township government. He said the township was going to be operating with eight fewer employees than in 2022.
Upper Township’s 2023 budget will appropriate $15,774,702.62, which is a decrease of $67,808.44 from 2022. The roughly $15.8 million is below the tax levy cap. The local purpose tax will increase by $551,306.08, necessitating an additional .0279 on the tax rate.
The tax rate per $100 of assessed value is increasing from .2520 per $100 of assessed value to .2799 per $100. A home assessed at $300,000 would pay another $84 per year, or $7 per month, DeMarzo said in the Feb. 27 meeting.
