No tax hike in proposed budget
UPPER POTTSGROVE » The draft $3.6 million budget the township commissioners voted unanimously Monday to advertise does not raise taxes in 2021.
It is still early in the year so the budget could change and the final budget is not traditionally adopted until December.
As it will be advertised, the tax rate will remain at 4 mills, 3.4 mills for the general fund and .6 mills for the fire tax.
If adopted unchanged, this budget will be the ninth in 10 years that does not raise taxes.
According to the review provided by Township Manager Michelle Reddick, savings were obtained by, among other things, eliminating medical and fitness center reimbursement payments for nonuniformed employees, as well as by reducing by $5,000 the township’s annual contribution to the Pottstown Regional Public Library.
“And the library has been notified the commissioners may do away with the contribution altogether,” Reddick said.
Other savings were realized when the health insurance premium estimates came in significantly lower than projected.
Nevertheless, Reddick reminded the commissioners that the budget they voted to advertise Monday night is operating at a deficit in the general fund, the sewer fund and the liquid fuels fund, although she did not indicate how much of a deficit for any of the three funds.
Commissioners’ Chairman Trace Slinkerd said there is adequate reserves to cover those deficits and noted that the township’s pension funds are in better shape than they were the year before.
He praised the staff for getting the budget done so early and said it is all part of crafting a four-year-plan for the township’s finances.
And when Commissioner Martin Schreiber said he thought the board was “cowardly” and lacked “transparency” by reducing the library contribution at a budget meeting, Slinkerd replied “well as I recall you were outvoted, so I guess that’s just sour grapes.”
This article first appeared as a post in The Digital Notebook.