Increased homestead exemption suggested

Move is meant to offset increase in taxes from county

Budget season has not yet begun in Montgomery Township, but one township supervisor has already made a request.

Supervisor Robert Birch said Monday he’d like to see the township try to increase a discount available to residents, to offset an increase in taxes from Montgomery County.

“The board of supervisors passed my resolution to consider increasing the homestead exemption by another $5,000 in order to reduce real estate taxes in our township,” Birch said.

“The increased homestead (exemption) will help counter the tax increase that the county imposed on our residents,” he said.

Each year, Montgomery Township and other municipalities throughout Montgomery County offer a homestead exemption that allows residents to deduct a certain amount from their assessed value, which is then used to calculate township real estate taxes. For the past several years, Montgomery Township’s homestead exemption has been set at $30,000, but

Birch — an incumbent Republican who is running for re-election this fall — asked the board to consider raising that amount as a response to a Montgomery County tax increase, in which the county voted last December to raise real estate taxes by 11 percent and said the increase was largely meant to fund Montgomery County Community College.

Montgomery Township’s 2017 budget adds up to roughly $21 million — as compared to the county’s $410 million budget — and staff have said the township’s homestead exemption is claimed by more than 75 percent of residential property owners, and

grants a total of $320,000 in annual tax relief.

“For the eight years that I have been a supervisor, we have never had a tax increase,” Birch said, and added that he hopes that trend can continue for 2018.

Each fall, Montgomery Township holds a series of budget workshops to discuss specifics of each department and fund, and Township Manager Larry Gregan said this week that schedule is still being finalized, and details could be announced at the board’s Sept. 11 meeting, while discussion on the exemption itself will continue through the following months.

“That’ll be discussed and

debated during the budget season,” Gregan said.

The supervisors also approved several formal action items during their Aug. 28 meeting, including a proposal from the Montgomery United Soccer Club for an outside contractor to maintain two soccer fields at Windlestrae Park. Contractor Windview Athletic Fields of West Chester would spray for weeds, apply fertilizer, aerate and seed the fields at a contract cost just shy of $14,000, and MonU has agreed to pay for mowing of the fields from mid-August to early November, at an estimated cost of $5,400, according to Gregan.

“MonU Soccer had approached us and asked us to provide some additional assistance in getting the fields ready for the fall season,” Gregan said.

“Even though we’ve done a lot of work in order to get the fields ready, MonU Soccer asked if we could do some more, to improve the overall quality of the fields,” he said. Birch thanked MonU board member Wendell Beres for bringing the topic to the board.

Other approvals from the supervisors included an application to PennDOT for upgrades to the traffic signal at Doylestown Road and Montgomery Glen Drive, as part of development of a new senior center on the west side of that intersection, and approved a similar connection agreement for sewer lines to that project.

“It’s to indemnify the township if any issues or problems arise with the pipe. It transfers the responsibly to the developer, where it belongs,” Gregan said.