Budget moves ahead

Hike would add $120 to average resident’s tax bill

LANSDALE » A 2018 budget, with a proposed tax increase accompanying it, is another step closer to becoming a reality.

Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to publicly advertise a 2018 budget with a one mill property tax increase, a raise of just shy of 25 percent over the current 4.5 mills and one expected to cost roughly $120 for the average household.

“I think it’s a reasonable, measured increase, particularly since we haven’t done it for several years,” said council President Denton Burnell.

“Everything costs more money every year, and we’ve gone up 4

percent (in expenses) over the past three years, and we haven’t raised taxes, so it’s time,” he said.

Since October borough officials have discussed the proposed 2018 budget, which initially contained a deficit of roughly $611,000 between projected expenses and revenues without the increase.

Borough Manager Jake Ziegler described in detail Wednesday night how the total borough expenditures project at $47,241,656 for the upcoming year, with revenues estimated at $46,638,763 without the proposed increase.

“As the cost of services increases, we are responsible for finding ways to balance the budget. We can do that by decreasing or removing services, but that goes against the borough’s mission statement, and would ultimately be more costly,” Ziegler said.

Of the projected $46.6 million in revenue, roughly 43 percent or $20.2 million comes from the borough’s electric department, which buys electricity wholesale and resells it to residents, while covering the costs of the borough’s electric department. The draft budget does include a $5 million transfer of electric revenues to cover general fund costs, a transfer that has been traditional in recent years, and one which Burnell said he hopes to see reduced over time.

“We’re still underwriting a lot of what would be a much more expensive tax bill — we’re underwriting it with that electric transfer,” he said.

“If we’re going to talk about running the borough like a business, businesses have to increase their prices to deal with the cost of living and inflation. We expect them to do it, why don’t we expect the borough to do it?” he said.

In addition to contracted salary increases and benefits, Burnell said, the borough is preparing for a new contract with its police officers’ union, new hires for the positions of borough manager and police chief, and increased debt service payments on a borrowing meant to repave several local roads.

“Nobody likes to raise taxes, but if we’re going to maintain the service levels that we have, and we can do that, that’s what we’re going to do,” Burnell said.

The borough’s total operating expenses in 2016 totalled $34.5 million, and increased by three percent in 2017 to $35.5 million, Ziegler said; the 2018 budget projects a one percent increase in those expenses to $35.8 million.

“Had we followed the previous trends, the gap would have been much larger, and we’d likely be proposing a fairly hefty tax increase,” Ziegler said.

The increase included in the proposed budget wold raise the current rate of 4.5 mills, last modified in 2014 to take effect in 2015, to a new rate of 5.5 mills. That increase would result in an additional $120 per year, $10 per month, $2.31 per week or 33 cents per day for the average household in the borough, with an assessed property value of $120,000, according to Ziegler.

“Back in 2015 when we raised taxes, we talked about how that money would help sustain the borough for three years. Well, we’ve made good use of those funds over three years. Now we need to make some tough decisions on how to continue sustaining our vibrant community,” he said.

That average resident pays a total tax bill of just over $4,000, and of that total the borough’s millage makes up only 16 percent, or roughly $660 in 2018, Ziegler said; the North Penn School District’s tax millage makes up just shy of threequarters of the total, with a tax bill of just over $3,000 for that average resident, and the remaining 11 percent of $460 would go to Montgomery County taxes.

What do residents get from the borough for their tax dollars? Fire and police protection, two local pools, library and parks programs, snow removal, a local electric department, road projects, and more. Over the past several months, Ziegler said, each department has outlined their goals for 2018: the police department plans to fill the vacancies left by three recent retirements and hire an accreditation manager to achieve accreditation per the Penn-

sylvania Chiefs of Police Association guidelines, customer service staff plan to develop written operating procedures, IT staff will formalize plans to realize cost savings for all departments, and the wastewater and electric departments plan to continue necessary infrastructure upgrades.

“As you look at the examples of the services provided to our borough, know that each department works diligently year-round to make the most of the resources that you, and our taxpayers, provide us,” Ziegler said.

“We look forward to doing that now, and in the future,” he said.

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 9 p.m. on Dec. 6, with various council committees meeting starting at 7 p.m. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www. Lansdale.org or follow @ LansdalePA on Twitter.