Property tax hike proposed

FRANCONIA >> Property taxes will go up 2.9 percent under the proposed 2019 budget outlined during the work session preceding the Franconia Township Board of Supervisors Nov. 19 regular business meeting.

The proposed budget has revenues and expenses of $5.4 million, Township Manager Jon Hammer said.

“It is a responsible budget that makes sense by keeping staffing numbers for the township the exact same as they are in 2018,” he said.

Items increasing in cost include employee salaries, healthcare and insurance, he said.

The township’s current 1.924 mill property tax rate is lower than the rates for neighboring towns, he said, listing higher rates for Hatfield Township, Souderton, Telford, Towamencin and Lower Salford.

“Our millage rate is significantly lower, not only in our neighborhood, but for many of the municipalities in the county, especially those that have their own police department,” Hammer said.

The proposed budget includes two new leased police vehicles, board member Robert Nice said.

“They’re already ordered, I believe, but won’t come in until 2019,” he said.

Board member David Fazio said the proposal also includes a new truck for the public works department.

Increasing the property tax

rate to 1.979 mills would be about a 2.9 percent increase, Hammer said.

“It would bring in about an additional $41,000 in real estate taxes,” he said. “For an average homeowner with a $166,000 assessed home, who currently pays $319 a year, this would be an increase of about $9 a year or 75 cents a month.”

Each mill equals $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed property value.

The last time Franconia raised the tax rate was for the 2015 budget when taxes went up 19 percent, along with 10 township employees, including four fulltime and two part-time police officers, being laid off in late 2014. The moves were necessary after it was discovered that the township had been operating in the red for half a dozen years, with the deficit hidden by money having been improperly transferred from restricted-use funds and used for other township expenses, township officials said at the time.

The proposed 2019 budget will include money for capital projects, board members said.

“For the last three years, we have been in recovery mode and we haven’t done anything to this township building, to the infrastructure, to the plant, the facilities,” Fazio said. “We haven’t done any improvements because we’ve been recovering, so I think it’s time.”

Nice said he, too, supported the proposed tax increase.

“We tightened our belt a couple years ago, I think, about as hard as we could,” he said.

The township is now on the right track, but will need more money for capital projects, he said.

“As a retired person, I have concerns about taxes keeping going up, but it’s been explained well here, and I think there’s reason to do this,” board member Curtis Kratz said.

“Things keep going up and we have been really locked down,” Fazio said. “This just makes sense.”

Nice said, from his perspective, it’s about a 3 percent tax increase over the past four years.

The proposed increase puts the rate for the general fund at 1.499 mills and keeps the fire tax at 0.15 mills and the library tax at 0.33 mills, Hammer said following the meeting.

During the meeting, board Chairman Grey Godshall said Franconia’s

budget and tax rate would stack up well against similar-sized bedroom communities with police departments that are the same size.

“There’s not a lot of fluff in here, nor is there a lot of discretionary spending in here,” he said.

The final vote on the budget and tax rate will be at the board’s 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 17 meeting.

In another matter at the regular board meeting, an ordinance amending the natural resource protection standards was approved.

“The current standards only apply to steep slopes and to tree replacement,” township engineer Doug Rossino said before the vote.

The new ordinance includes all the natural resources recognized by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, such as water bodies, woodlands, wetlands, riparian buffers and flood plain zones, he said.

“We tightened our belt a couple years ago, I think, about as hard as we could.” — Robert Nice