FLORENCE: Budget calls for tax-rate increase

By Amber Cox, Staff Writer
   FLORENCE — The $10.8 million 2011-12 Florence Township municipal budget, adopted 4-1 April 20, calls for raising the tax rate 5.7 cents and not filling the positions of eight workers who have left.
   Residents will see a tax rate of 40.4 cents with the new budget. Owners of a house assessed at the average of $231,420 will pay $934.94 in municipal taxes, an increase of $131.91. Last year’s tax rate was 34.7 cents.
   Township Administrator Richard Brook said the budget is $890,000 higher than last year’s, and the primary reasons for the increases are debt service, the reserve for uncollected taxes, the police and fire pension system and the public employees pension system.
   Mr. Brook also said the pensions themselves increased almost $100,000.
   Salaries and wages for the township are projected at $4.4 million, a decrease of $200,000 from last year.
   Debt service for the township also is increasing by about $500,000 to a total of $1.05 million.
   The township is not filling eight positions for the coming fiscal year, seven of which are full time. The positions include three full-time dispatchers, three full-time police officers, one full-time Public Works employee and one part-time administrative employee and will save the township $470,000 in salaries and wages. The work done by those employees will be taken over by other employees in the respective departments.
   ”Florence Township, like many other municipalities, works very hard to work with the employees it has,” Mr. Brook said.
   There was also an amendment to the original budget to implement a separate library tax.
   ”This does not increase the local purpose rate,” Mr. Brook said. “It just separates the local purpose tax rate and the library tax rate.”
   He explained the municipal tax rate is 40.1 cents, and the library tax rate is .03 cents.
   ”It equates to the same number,” he said. “It’s just one of those things that the state requires you to do.”
   Council President Dennis O’Hara said coming up with the budget was not an easy task.
   ”Some municipalities are really struggling and going out for a vote to exceed the tax cap levy,” he said. “We run a tight ship. We’ve done the best we could. Everyone up here is a taxpayer in the community. I think it’s bare bones and the best we could come up with.”