West Rockhill to hold the line on taxes

In 2006, the West Rockhill Township Board of Supervisors approved a property tax hike for the following year. That hasn’t happened since. And that streak won’t change this year, township officials said at the board’s Oct. 17 meeting.

“The most important thing right now is to hold our own and try to weather the storm,” board member Jay Keyser said. One of the biggest parts of that is helping residents get through the current rough economy by not hiking taxes, he said.

The proposed 2013 budget will be officially presented next month, with a final vote in December, but Greg Lippincott, township manager, gave a quick preview at the October meeting.

“Right now your draft proposed budget is a balanced budget,” Lippincott said. “However, it’s bare bones.”

West Rockhill’s property tax rate is 5.25 mills, equaling a $210 tax bill for a home assessed at $40,000. Each mill equals $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Of the 5.25 mills, 4.25 are allo- cated for the general fund, 0.75 mills for the fire tax and 0.25 mills for road equipment.

Other West Rockhill taxes are the $52 per year Local Services Tax paid by people working in the municipality and the Earned Income Tax paid by people living in the municipality. The 1.75 percent EIT includes 1 percent for Pennridge School District, 0.5 percent for West Rockhill Township and 0.25 percent for open space in West Rockhill.

In a follow-up to a question raised last month, Lippincott updated the board in October about the portion of the township that is in open space land preservation programs.

There are 695 acres owned by utilities, authorities or other government entities from outside West Rockhill, he said. Those tracts include Sellersville’s reservoir and state gamelands, he said.

Another 976 acres of preserved land has been added, most of it with the township’s involvement and in the past few years, he said.

Depending on how you calculate the numbers, that means 9.5 percent to 15 percent of the township could be counted toward the board’s goal

of preserving 30 percent of the land in the township from further development, he said.

“It’s ambitious. We knew that when we started out, but I don’t think that’s impossible,” Donald Duvall, board chairman, said of the goal.

With next year’s budgets in the works, each of the towns served by the Pennridge Community Center in Silverdale is getting a visit from representatives of the center.

“All the funds we get from the state and the county pay for the manager and the assistant manager. Everything else we’ve got to raise ourselves,” Ebby Schirmer, a West Rockhill resident who made the presentation at the board’s Oct. 17 meeting, said.

Last year, $26,540 was brought in by renting out rooms at the center for parties, weddings and other events or programs, she said. One of the center’s goals is to increase that, she said.

“We really are working hard at getting that building used 24L7,” Schirmer said.

In the past year, the word “senior” has been taken out of what was previously designated as the Pennridge Community Senior Center.

Although membership is only open to those 55 and older, Schirmer said, it’s not necessary to be a member to take part in most of the activities.

“It is a true community center,” she said.

In answer to Schirmer’s question of whether the proposed 2013 West Rockhill budget includes a contribution to the center, she was told it does not.

There’s still the possibility of a contribution, though, officials said, if the financial picture doesn’t turn out to be as tight as the budget anticipates.

“If the money situation changes, the board always revisits different projects,” Lippincott said.

Another possibility would be to allow the center to use Community Development Block Grant funding allocated to West Rockhill, he said.

The current three-year cycle of CDBG funding has ended, he said.

“In the next three-year funding cycle, it could be used for a project down there,” Lippincott said.

A previous round of CDBG funding for West Rockhill was used for furniture at the center, Schirmer said. While that was appreciated, the CDBG money must be used on a project, she said.

“We also need operating dollars, that’s the problem,” Schirmer said.