Kennett Township supervisors approved the 2023 budgets Wednesday night, with a half-mill tax increase to help pay for increasing emergency and police service costs.
The 0.5-mill increase will mean the average taxpayer in Kennett, with a property worth $624,000 and assessed at $246,871, would pay an extra $123 each year in township taxes, according to Kennett Finance Director Amy Heinrich. (A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value.)
Total taxes for 2023 would be 3 mills, which also includes the 0.2-mill library tax.
The township’s general fund budget has estimated revenue of $7.7 million (not including money recovered from the former township manager’s embezzlement) and expenses of $6.815 million.
The increase in general fund operating expenses is “primarily driven by a 30 percent increase in the contribution required to the (Kennett Area) Fire and EMS Commission and higher salaries associated with a new police contract, with some offsetting improved policies to control overtime,” Heinrich said at previous budget meetings.
The township police department is also starting a new collective bargaining agreement in 2023, Heinrich said.
The supervisors also approved budgets for open space, sewer, liquid fuels, and capital improvements.
“We won’t be able to do everything we want to do, but we put together what we think is the best package,” Heinrich explained.
Supervisor Geoff Gamble said the township has “very little choice as a practical matter” when deciding on the tax increase. “I have worked with these two (supervisors), and I sincerely believe that they’ve done everything possible, along with our township manager and Amy (Heinrich) … to keep spending under control.”
Supervisors’ Vice Chairman Scudder Stevens said the board and township staff have spent a lot of time planning the budget.
“There has been a great deal of discussion on the budget, and the costs and consequences of those determinations have received a great deal of detail,” he said.
More information on the budgets can be found online at Kennett.pa.us.
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.
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