Newtown Supervisors Work to Whittle Down Projected 13% Tax Increase

NEWTOWN SQUARE–At their second budget workshop session on Monday night, Board of Supervisors worked on paring down its projected 13.17 percent tax increase in the preliminary 2012 budget.

According to Larry Fischer, special assistant to township manager Mike Trio, each percentage is approximately equaled to $36,000-$40,000 or about $474,000-$520,000 needed if the township were to bring the 13.17 percent tax increase down to zero.

"This budget is a little aggressive on the revenue side and conservative on the expenses," said Fischer.

The supervisors discussed several areas in the budget for potential savings to help reduce the tax increase burden for residents next year, including borrowing money for the Central Delaware County Authority's $340,000 bond payment, in which the 2012 budget must be created before borrowing any loans; and financing for the municipal authority payment in which the township must pay for since the authority has no source of income.

Liquid Fuels/Highway Aid Inter-Fund Transfers

According to Fischer, the township has not done any overlay/paving projects in the past two years. In the preliminary budget, $400,000 was saved for Liquid Fuels/Highway Aid in which Fischer said $200,000 has already been bookmarked for non-paving projects that are still relative to street work such as public works salaries, leaf pickup, materials, etc. And the other $200,000 was budgeted for a street repair program.

Fischer recommended using some of the capital money to be used for overlay but reduce that number by $100,000–the township can't reduce the entire $200,000 because "there's not enough other costs to offset that against."

"We were going to spend $400,000 in liquid fuels money," explained Fischer. "You could lower that to $300,000 and offset expenses to $100,000. There are potential savings in there."

Supervisor George Wood asked whether there was any money leftover in the current budget of liquid fuels money to carryover, in which Fischer responded that the township would be able to carryover about $160,000.

"You can take out some of that stree repair money and defer the maintenance for another year," said Fischer. "And save that money–we won't lost that money, the money will carryover to the next year."

Fire Hydrant and Street Light Taxes

"The fire hydrant tax and street light tax has been dormant for approximately five to six years," said Trio.

According to Fischer most people pay real estate taxes and almost everyone pays hydrant taxes, but non-profit organizations don't pay real estate taxes and only pay hydrant taxes.

"So there's a few thousand dollars to be raised there if you raise the hydrant tax, which has not been raised in five years," explained Fischer.

In regards to the street light tax, only residents who live on streets with street lights pay the street light tax, said Fischer, which also has not been raised in five years. "Yet the cost to maintain the street lights has gone up every year."

In addition, Trio said the township switched to another energy provider other than PECO but will be reviewing it again for more potential savings.

Ambulance Services Provider

"Depending on when we can get out of the contract, that could be significant," said Fischer about the township's current ambulance services provider which is provided by Riddle Memorial Hospital. "The worst-case scenario is we stay here for at least six months and then transfer over to another service provider."

Although the township could save money on switching over to another ambulance services provider, Supervisor Dr. Ross Lambert said this area of discussion as "sensitive."

"The service that you provide to the township, we need to be very, very careful that if we do choose on another provider that the parameters are very strict and very clear because it’s a little hard for me to believe that some of the people who have provided proposals for us will be able to to do what we have now," said Lambert. "I don’t want the level of care and level of service that our township residents receive to be cut. We don’t want to be saving money on the expense of saving lives."

Supervisor Linda Houldin also shared her concerns over the language of the contract and suggested, "We need to change that if they don't provide a certain service then they get penalized."

In the current budget, the ambulance expense line is $684,238, without counting ambulance repairs, while in the 2012 budget the expense is projected for $690,000.

According to Lambert, negotiations have been in the works with the current provider and if the township were to stick with the current provider once the contract is up in June 2012, the ambulance provider has agreed to reduce its costs to the township.