Growing police force necessitates substantial tax hike

KENNETT TOWNSHIP » A substantial rise in taxes to pay for the municipal police force will be part of Kennett Township’s 2018 budget.

At their monthly meeting, the supervisors went over their proposed 2018 budget and noted there was no tax dedicated to paying for emergency services.

And in recent years, the township’s police force has grown, and the expenses for it have grown as well. The 2018 budget projects $1.5 million in expenses for emergency services, and only $130,400 allotted to pay for them.

So the supervisors voted unanimously for an increase of 1.9 mills in the real-estate tax rate, which currently stands at .4 mills. The increase, they said, would generate about $1.5 million in additional revenues, enough to cover the emergency services costs.

Supervisor Richard Leff said the total tax bill for an average household in the township would come to about $930 per year, which he said was in line with other municipalities in the area.

The supervisors said they had known for a long time that the costs, and therefore income, for police services would have to go up. Scudder Stevens, chair of the supervisors, said Albert McCarthy had told him several years ago that once the Granite Ridge development was completed the township would eventually need a police force of as many as nine officers.

Police Chief Lydell Nolt said inadequate policing results in problem-ridden municipalities

that people don’t view as desirable places to live and work. Once that happens, Nolt said, it becomes much more expensive to solve the problems and make the community desirable again. Ultimately the cost of adequate policing becomes an investment in the community, Nolt said, and anything less does a disservice to the residents.

Leff said another consideration was the township’s surplus, from which emergency services costs had been paid in recent years. Currently the township had the equivalent of about a year’s worth of expenses in its reserves, which was

what its accountants recommended. It was not wise to draw it down any further, Leff said.

Township Manager Lisa Moore said the residents, herself included, appreciated having their own police force who could respond much more quickly than the state police.

Stevens said the township had considered other sources of revenue, some of which were limited to certain amounts by state law, including a local services tax on people working in the township, a dedicated police tax, and a dedicated fire tax. But he said Leff’s proposal was simpler and made more

sense.

The tax increase was part of the overall budget proposal, which the supervisors passed unanimously. General fund expenses are projected at $3.8 million.

In other news, Moore said it now appears the wheelchair access ramps on the new sidewalks along Cypress Street and elsewhere will not be done before the spring. Moore said people were already using the sidewalks, so she and other officials were looking at stopgap measures to make them easier and safer to use until they were finished.

The supervisors approved a resolution regulating medical marijuana producing and dispensing facilities. The ordinance requires production facilities to be at least a thousand feet from any residentially zoned land or tracts with schools or day-care centers on them. It requires dispensaries to be at least 250 feet from similar properties.

The supervisors voted two to one for the ordinance, with Leff opposed because he wanted a more restrictive approach to dispensary location.

There will be no second monthly meeting on Dec. 20.

FRAN MAYE – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Kennett Township Police Chief Lydell Nolt and his department have been busy since the township formed a police department recently.