Politics & Government
Final 2021 Newtown Township Budget Approved!
By a 3-2 vote, the supervisors approved the budget, which includes a property tax increase of about $160 per year for the average homeowner.
Many Newtown Township residents were understandably upset about the proposed Newtown Township “Preliminary 2021 Budget,” which included a 133% increase in Newtown's municipal property tax. For the average Newtown Township homeowner that translates to an ADDITIONAL $240 per year paid in taxes to the township.
That version of the budget included many new and increased expenditures for personnel, services, and capital improvements.
Some of those expenses were cut in the final budget that was approved at the 22 December 2020 Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting by a 3-2 vote. Voting for this budget were Dennis Fisher, John Mack, and David Oxley. Voting against were Phil Calabro and Kyle Davis.
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The final APPROVED budget includes a 3.99 mill increase in Newtown property taxes, which is a decrease of 2 mills from the preliminary budget. That works out to be about $160 per year increase for the average homeowner. The total Newtown property tax is 8.49 mills or about $340 per year for the average homeowner. Calculate your tax here.
What Cuts Did Residents Want?
To answer that question, I hosted the 2021 Budget Cut Survey* on SurveyMonkey. The survey asked respondents to select items in the preliminary budget they would be willing to cut in order to reduce or eliminate the proposed tax increase. The list of items to cut presented to survey respondents included many – but NOT all – of the expenditures in the following table of possible cuts. A total of 128 survey responses were collected.
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What Cuts Were Actually Made?
The following expenditure cuts were made in the final approved 2021 budget.
- Eliminate hiring of new Director of Zoning & Code Enforcement. 65% of survey respondents chose that as an item to cut. Estimated savings: $40,000
- Reduce the Road Program by $50,000. Although a high percentage (47%) of survey respondents were happy with cutting $280,000 from the road program. The majority of supervisors felt it was important to continue to pave at least 3-4 miles of roads every year.
- Eliminate New police building study. This was "no-brainer." 84% of survey respondents chose that as an item to cut. Estimated savings: $20,000
- Reduce new police vehicles from 3 to 2. 73% of survey respondents chose that as an item to cut. Estimated savings: $56,667
TOTAL ESTIMATED SAVINGS: $166,667
Not all the cuts that I or many residents wanted made it in the final budget. A compromise was made to get this passed before the December 31, 2020 deadline. Just as important as cutting some expenses was to make sure that the projected reserve fund at the end of the year would be between 8 and 10%. The ending fund balance is projected to be $1,199,928 or 8.72% of expenditures.
Note: The budget is just a plan for spending. The township will still have the option to spend money, if available, on any of the above items. To do so, however, requires approval of the Board of Supervisors at a public meeting.
*DISCLAIMER: My 2021 Budget Cut Survey is NOT an official Newtown Township Survey. It’s purpose was solely to inform John Mack, a Newtown Supervisor, of residents' opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of John Mack and do not represent the opinions of any other person or entity.
