Radnor sets revenue-neutral property tax rate
RADNOR » Radnor Township, like most communities, will see total revenue drop at the end of 2020 more than was expected when officials passed their budgets one year ago.
“We missed our numbers from our original budget for 2020 by about $7 million this year, which is a big chunk of our budget, and I am deeply concerned about how we are going to fund that gap,” board President Jack Larkin said at last week’s meeting of the Radnor Board of Commissioners.
The shortfall is a result of those unexpected lockdowns this year.
So with less tax revenue coming into the township, the board has been giving an extra look at issues such as how much money they are giving to non-governmental non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations.
At a couple of meetings since October, board members have discussed their annual contributions to these groups. The groups are as different as the Radnor Fire Company, the Wayne Art Center, the Radnor Library, the Radnor Historical Society, and groups that provide services for seniors – including the Wayne Senior Center and Surrey Services for Seniors.
In developing the township budget, the organizations asking for contributions from the township submit a request form to the township.
For example, the Wayne Senior Center listed its total budget as $430,245 and requested $145,000 from the township. They said they serve 1,500 Radnor residents, with $301,172 of that total budget being used to serve Radnor residents.
Surrey Services for Seniors is another group that has traditionally received money from Radnor. They requested $50,000 and said nearly $253,000 of its total budget of just over $5 million is used to serve 225 Radnor residents.
Commissioner Sean Farhy said he knows the organizations do good work for the community, but what he hasn’t heard in any of the discussions is how these organizations have been making sacrifices.
“I’ve heard all the good they do, but in a year where sacrifices have to be made, I don’t hear that,” Farhy said. “So it’s not that I’m not sympathetic, I am. But I am [advocating] for the township and really for residents and the taxpayer dollars.”
Christi Seidel, CEO of Surrey Services, told the board they have made sacrifices.
“We really did make some painstaking cuts this year that were really difficult,” Seidel said.
“We reorganized, we did everything we could to make sure that we could still provide the services at the most cost-effective way possible. We did our budgeting very differently this year. Rather than just doing a budget … we did three different scenarios for our budget.”
The three budgets involved whether they were shut down for just the first quarter of their fiscal year beginning July 1 and then budgets for being shut down in other quarters.
“I do just want to point out that a lot of us really did take some painstaking cost-cutting measures,” Seidel said.
According to Seidel, they furloughed some employees and redeployed others.
Commissioner Lisa Borowski supported the idea of keeping the funding in place and then having a conversation next year about the groups.
“Our seniors need a lot of help and support these days, and I believe that we are bridging a gap when it comes to things like that – or at least the senior center is providing that. Surrey services provides a similar service, and I would argue that people need those services now more than ever, and for us to take that money back means that less people will be able to receive those services because of the difficulty in fundraising that exists right now,” Borowski said.
Board president Jack Larkin said his position for next year would be that the township can only fund organizations that fill traditional municipal roles.
“I’m frankly not convinced that Surrey services fits into that category,” Larkin said. “I think they do a wonderful service. I think that we would be poorer without them if we ever are, and I would like to find a way to ensure they are fully funded, but at the end of the day, this isn’t my money that I’m giving away. It is taxpayer dollars, and if we are using it for non-municipal services, I have concerns and ethical problems with that.”
Larkin said the fire company and the library are within what he called a governmental role. The senior center would be in the penumbra of a government function.
Other commissioners also chimed in on the township’s support for organizations such as the fire department.
“We reorganized, we did everything we could to make sure that we could still provide the services at the most costeffective way possible. We did our budgeting very differently this year.
Rather than just doing a budget … we did three different scenarios for our budget.”
— Christi Seidel,
CEO of Surrey Services
“I think it’s important to note that of all the 501(c)(3)s, the environment that we’ve been dealing with COVID is front and center,” Commissioner Damien Enderle, a volunteer with the company, said. “Day in and day out, 24/7 Radnor Fire Company does not close its doors. It does not do shutdowns. It has been the front line of defense for this community in terms of dealing with COVID-19 and all the related things that go along with that in terms of protecting community members.”
Enderle said the number of calls Radnor Fire Company has been making hasn’t changed.
Commissioner Jake Abel took a similar stance with the township’s funding of the fire company.
“As we look at 501(c)(3)s, the fire company has to be pulled out of that group,” Abel said. “If you have a fire at your house, you’re going to expect that someone is going to show up, and right now under COVID circumstances, it’s probably going to be a volunteer firefighter … that shows up at your house if there’s an emergency.”
In the end, the board approved and amendment with a four-tothree vote to cut its contribution to Surrey by 30 percent or
$15,000.
Bill White, township manager, said the township has also made cuts. Among those was that they suspended some discretional capital projects such as upgrading the security cameras at the township building and the technology in the Radnorshire Room in the township building.
Also, as part of the budget, the board had to set the property tax millage rate. This year’s rate issue is complicated due to Delaware County’s reassessment. The millage rate has to change due to the changes in property values. Under state law, the millage rate would have to be changed to be a revenue-neutral figure. Once the revenue-neutral tax rate is established, the township could then, under the law, increase the taxes by 10 percent. The new millage rate will come in at 2.2837.
In the end, the board voted to approve the 2021 budget with the amendment to cut the contribution to Surrey by a five-totwo vote. The board also voted to keep the sanitary sewer rate for
2021 the same as in 2020 at $7.85 per 1,000 gallons of water.