Perry Township supervisors approve proposed 2017 budget with no tax increase (copy)
PERRY TWP. — Township supervisors on Tuesday approved a proposed 2017 budget that does not include a tax increase.
The budget balances projected expenses of $799,188 with projected revenue of $670,279 and a beginning fund balance of $158,628.
Real estate tax millage would remain 1.127 mills. Each mill generates $88,000 in revenue for the township, said A.J. Boni, chairman of the board of supervisors.
He commended township secretary Katherine Petrosky and the other supervisors for crafting the spending plan, which marks the 17th consecutive year without a tax increase.
“I think that’s the 17th year in a row,” Boni said.
Taxes on the property in the township with the highest assessed value, $1.8 million, would be $1,350 under the proposed budget, Boni said.
He said taxes on a property valued at $233,880 would be about $290, taxes on a property valued at $49,610 would be $61.50 and taxes on a $25,800 property would be $32.
The township has always used fund balances to balance the budget, but it can’t do that forever, Boni said.
Higher taxes, more commercial development and more homeowners are the only means for raising enough revenue to avoid using fund balances to balance the budget, he said.
Earned income taxes are the township’s primary source of revenue, Boni said.
The budget projects earned income tax revenue at $230,000 and real estate tax revenue at $93,000.
The 2017 fund balance is $175,628, according to the budget.
In unrelated business, Boni said the supervisors do not support renaming a section of Route 51 in the township after the late Perryopolis Borough Police Officer Richard Champion.
Champion died on Dec. 14, 2014, when his patrol car and another vehicle crashed while he was pursuing a speeding vehicle on Route 51 in the township.
The state House and Senate unanimously adopted a bill naming that stretch of the highway the Richard Champion Memorial Highway.
Borough officials and Champion’s widow and son attended when the House passed the bill in October.
The crash occurred near the Big Barn general store, which is owned by the family of the late Andrew V. Bohatch Jr. who also died in the collision, Boni said.
He said the Bohatch family is respected in the township and placing the sign in front of the store would be hurtful.
The supervisors discussed the matter with state Rep. Ryan Warner, R-Perryopolis, who sponsored the bill, Boni said.
In other business, the supervisors hired township resident Bernard P. Litvin as a full-time commercial vehicle driver and laborer with wages of $14 an hour contingent upon him passing a mandated drug screening.