By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
ALLENTOWN The average borough resident will see about a $10 reduction in his annual municipal tax bill in 2011, Mayor Stuart Fierstein says.
The Borough Council unanimously adopted the $2.4 million budget on May 24 after a public hearing that no residents attended. The projected tax rate is 0.618 cents per $100 of assessed value, down slightly from when the budget was first introduced in April and borough officials were projecting a 0.621-cent tax rate.
The new boroughwide average residential assessment since the completion of the 2010 revaluation is $294,000. Last year, before the revaluation, the average value of an Allentown home was $153,400 and the tax rate was $1.191 per $100 of assessed value. That worked out to an average $1,827 municipal tax bill.
The latest 2011 tax rate projection means the average home will see an approximate $10 drop in the municipal portion of the annual property tax bill, instead of the $2 reduction that was anticipated when the budget was introduced.
”There’s been a recertification as of this afternoon by the tax assessor,” Mayor Fierstein said at the council meeting. “It doesn’t require any adjustment to the budget, it just applies to the savings reflected in the estimated tax bills.”
The 2011 budget contains a $1.21 million municipal tax levy, which is the amount of taxes needed to sustain the operating budget. The levy is $53,000 less than the allowable amount permitted under the state’s 2 percent cap law.
The total value of all properties in the borough before the revaluation was $102 million, Mayor Fierstein said. Today, the total value of borough properties is $196,873,658 an increase of 93 percent. If the increase in a resident’s individual assessment is on par with the percentage increase in property values boroughwide, he can expect a slight drop in the municipal portion of the tax bill.
Mayor Fierstein said the municipal budget was adopted later in the year than usual because the borough didn’t receive its final revaluation numbers until April. The borough also was waiting for MetroPCS to sign a cell tower lease so the $26,700 in projected revenue from the deal could be included in the 2011 budget. The departure of the borough’s full-time CFO, Robert Benick, in January also led to delays in the audit process, the mayor said.
Instead of hiring a full-time CFO to replace Mr. Benick, the borough negotiated an interlocal agreement with Plumsted Township to share the services of its CFO, June Madden. Switching to a part-time CFO will save the borough more than $35,000 a year, Mayor Fierstein said.
The borough also has interlocal agreements with Robbinsville for public works, fire inspections, the construction office, automotive garage services, and white goods and electronics recycling, Mayor Fierstein said.
A one-year contract extension was negotiated with the town’s five police officers, giving them a 1.5 percent salary increase in return for the officers agreeing to pay 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health benefits, the mayor said. All other township salaries remain frozen for 2011, he said.

