Politics & Government

Proposed Lawrence Township Budget for 2011 Revealed - Includes a 6 Cent Tax Rate Increase

The proposed increase in the municipal tax rate to 84 cents means that the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $161,292 would pay a total of $1,354.85 in municipal taxes for the year – or $96.77 more than at the current 78 cent tax rate.

Lawrence Township Manager Richard Krawczun presented to township council members at their meeting on Tuesday (March 1) his proposal for a $42.1 million municipal budget for 2011 – $21.5 million of which would be raised through taxes, requiring a 6 cent increase to the municipal tax rate.

Under the proposed budget, the municipal tax rate would rise from the current 78 cents per $100 of assessed property value to 84 cents.

That would mean the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $161,292 would pay a total of $1,354.85 in municipal taxes for the year – or $96.77 more than at the 78 cent rate, assuming no change in the assessed value. (The township average assessment last year was $163,447).

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(Last week, the , which included a recommended 3 cent increase to the current school tax rate of $2.30 per $100 of assessed value.)

Lawrence Township’s $41.3 million municipal budget that was adopted in 2010 saw the municipal tax rate also increase 6 cents, going from 72 cents to the current 78 cents.  

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“This is the first time the council is seeing this budget,” Mayor Greg Puliti noted at Tuesday evening’s meeting at the township Municipal Building. “This is the recommended budget from the municipal manager. We still need to go over the budget and go through it line by line.”

The next two council meetings – on March 15 and April 5 – will see council members discussing the proposed budget with the heads of the township’s various departments. Additional deliberation – with time for public comment – will take place at the April 21 meeting, and it is anticipated that the council will introduce the finalized budget on May 3.

“I appreciate, as always, the work the manager has put into this budget. It’s a lot of hard work. Flipping through it, having seen it for the first time tonight, I’m struck by a couple things. The first thing is the proposed tax increase of 6 cents represents an 8 percent increase in the municipal tax rate,” Councilman Bob Bostock said. “That’s a pretty high increase in what’s continuing to be a time of economic uncertainty. A lot of people are still hurting. The unemployment rate is still very high. Another increase in taxes – an 8 percent increase in taxes – is going to be really tough for a lot of residents to bear.

“I think we have done, for the most part, a good job over the past several years of trying to get as much blood from the stone as we can. I don’t think this is a question of trying to find economies within our existing operation,” Bostock continued. “I think we really are going to have to ask if there are services that we are currently providing that we ought to continue to provide or whether we need to start eliminating some of those services. An 8 percent increase in the tax rate is going to be really tough, I think, to pass on to our property owners in this economic climate. So certainly I think that’s something we need to look at and those are certainly the kinds of questions I’ll be asking as we go through this budget.”

In his budget address (a copy of which can be downloaded in PDF format from the box above), Krawczun highlighted some of the many services that Lawrence Township provides – from police and fire response to snow plowing and brush pickup – and explained in detail the township’s various sources of revenue, particularly the township’s inability to replenish its surplus fund.

Under the state's proposed budget, state aid to the township for 2011 is $3,982,565 - the same amount of aid the state offered to Lawrence in 2010.

“The 2011 municipal budget was prepared to carefully balance the appropriate level of service, a tax rate that realistically reflects support of appropriate service levels, the economic environment that we are presently experiencing and the paradigm shift that is occurring and will have a long-term impact on the future municipal budget of Lawrence Township and local governments generally,” Krawczun said, reading from his budget address.

As he did during his review of the 2010 municipal budget during the Feb. 1 council meeting, Krawczun spoke about the many tax appeals that have taken place in recent years and the resultant decline in ratables – particularly commercial properties – in the township. In the last two years, according to Krawczun, there has been a decrease of more than $121 million in the assessed value of properties in the township. That drop in ratables has cost the township nearly $1 million in taxes, he said.

“The recommended municipal budget for 2011 has not been developed in a way that considers current conditions as temporary and once they improve there will be a return to normal. The conditions that exist will continue. New fiscal challenges will be developing and old matters will evolve,” Krawczun said. “The Lawrence Township municipal budget is not so much an appropriation problem but a revenue problem. As previously stated if the amount of surplus was able to be anticipated at the same level as the prior year and the decline in ratables had not occurred the combined revenue from prior taxation and surplus would have resulted in a tax decrease instead of an increase for 2011.”

“We’re going to take a hard look at this,” Councilman Michael Powers said of the proposed budget. “The manager’s report clearly emphasizes the decline in ratables that has shrunk the pie. We will do our best to scrutinize this and identify any additional cost savings to ease the tax burden to our residents.”


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