The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Township property owners can expect a tax increase this year that’s larger than hikes in the past several years, Mayor Phil Kramer said during the Township Council’s March 11 budget virtual hearing.
One of the bigger factors in the increase is the looming $2.5 million increase in the cost of employee health insurance costs, he said.
The Mayor’s sudden announcement came during a discussion of the Conferences and Meetings budget line item in the Township Council budget.
Some Council members were advocating raising the $5,750 allocation, something that didn’t sit well with the Mayor.
“We’re going to be raising taxes, probably more than we have in the past 5 or 6 years,” Kramer said. “This is probably not the best time to be adding travel expenses.”
“Employee medical costs are going way up,” he said.
Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said the costs were set to increase by $2.5 million.
The municipal portion of township property tax bills – which is the only part of the bill controlled by the township – increased 1 percent in each of the 2023 and 2022 budgets. The local portion of the property tax bill remained steady from 2018 to 2021.
“This might be a good time to hold back,” Kramer said.
But Deputy Mayor Ed Potosnak disagreed.
“I don’t know if a conference is a place to hold back, if you can go there and learn something that might help you save money somewhere else,” he said.
Councilman Ram Anbarasan pointed out that the Council never uses all the money that has been allocated for conferences in past years.
“Last year, we spent less than 50 percent,” he said.
In the end, the Council decided to take $909 from the training line item and add it to the conferences line item.
The Council heard from a number of departments, most of whose projected 2024 budgets were unchanged from 2023.
Some of the bigger expenditures were found in the IT Technology capital program budget.
Included in that category was $156,300 for mobile radios and portable radios for Fire District 1, $85,000 for the IT Department’s computer/printer/server/iPad replacement program, and $40,000 for upgrades to the municipal network system.
Vornlocker said the radios will be needed if more personnel are brought into Fire District 1. He said the equipment will only be purchased if “an agreement is reached between the township and fire district.”
“If it does go through, the initial discussions are that these costs would be borne by reimbursement by the fire district,” he said. “We need to include them in our budget because we need to purchase them and be reimbursed.”
The IT Operating Budget is $490,301, an $83,995 increase.
Department head Robert McQueen told the Council that the biggest increase is for software licensing.
Also, he said, “one of contracts we have for vehicle tracking software was a 5-year agreement that came due this year,” he said. “That was a substantial portion of that increase.”
Vornlocker said the budget for township prosecutors’ salaries will increase by $10,900.
Vornlocker said the Township, Assistant and Per Diem prosecutors have not received raises in several years.
“We came to that by looking at neighboring towns and matching what they pay,” Kramer said.
The next budget hearing is set for March 19.
