Tax increases in Kennett Twp.

Posted by Monica Fragale on November 13, 2024

The Kennett Township budget is available for public review and comment until Dec. 4.

That is the date of the next supervisors’ meeting, at which time the board is expected to formally adopt the 2025 budget and tax rates. The budget documents, presentations, and other supporting data can be found on the Kennett Township website (kennett.pa.us) in the Document Center section.

The preliminary budget, authorized for advertisement at the supervisors’ Nov. 6 meeting, includes a one-tenth mill tax increase. A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value.

The one-tenth mill increase could cost an extra $22 a year for an average household, but it’s part of the supervisors’ strategy to tackle tax increases, according to Kennett Township Finance Director Amy Heinrich.

“This is what we talked about” at the last budget meeting, Heinrich said at Wednesday’s meeting. “It seemed from the indications that slow and steady makes sense.”

Earned income tax and real estate taxes make up the majority of the township’s anticipated revenue for 2025. Heinrich said the EIT is forecast to bring in $3.793 million, or 44 percent of the overall revenue, and real estate taxes on a property’s assessed value are forecast to bring in $2.826 million, or 32 percent of the revenue.

“The drivers are the earned income tax, real estate taxes plus our assessment growth,” Heinrich said, adding that the EIT and real estate revenues for this year have exceeded the budget estimates.

The next largest portion of the anticipated revenue is from building and zoning permits, which is estimated at $456,000. That number is $63,000 higher than what was estimated.

“2024 is exceeding budget due to several large projects that came in earlier than expected,” Heinrich said.

The majority of expenses are expected to be for police, fire, and EMS, according to Heinrich.

“About half of the increase for police is through the pension,” she said. “The remaining increase is for police equipment.”

Expenses are expected to be an additional $324,000 for police, $260,000 for fire and EMS, $80,000 in public works, $36,000 in administration, and $31,000 in insurance.

In other business, the supervisors:

Held an executive session on Oct. 23 for personnel matters.
Voted to auction three pieces of equipment on Municibid: a grader, a brush chipper, and six tires. Municibid hosts online government equipment auctions.
Voted to have the township do an environmental review of the Kennett Area Community Service’s new building to fulfill a federal grant requirement. KACS was awarded a Housing and Urban Development Community Project Funding grant and, according to Dobbins, “Kennett Township has some land use responsibility along with the appropriate professional staff and is in a position to serve as the responsible entity.” Dobbins said that nothing would change or impact the normally required environmental review if they became the responsible entity.

“It’s common for the local government to serve as the unit of responsible entity,” she said.

About Monica Fragale

Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.