Newtown Supervisors Vote to Revise Preliminary Budget

UPDATE (11 NOV 2020): At last night's Newtown Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, the members voted against "hanging" (advertising for public viewing & comment) the Manager's "preliminary budget" for 2021. That budget proposed a millage increase of 7.5 to be added to the General Fund (GF).

The vote against "hanging" this budget allowed the supervisors to discuss desired revisions to the budget.

I expressed my opinion on which cuts to keep when considering revising the budget. My suggestion was to reduce the millage increase to 5.0 without defunding the police or the road repaving program. See my meeting notes for details.

In the end, the BOS instructed our township Manager Micah Lewis to come back to the November 25, 2020, BOS meeting with a revised preliminary budget that reduced the millage increase by 2.0 mills. This would be done without making ANY cuts, but would mean that the end of year balance ("reserve fund") would be 10-11% of expenditures instead of the 15% as in the original budget.

What's Next?

If at the November 25 meeting the BOS decides to "hang" the revised preliminary budget, the public has 20 days to examine the budget and submit comments. After that, if there are no changes, the BOS has until the end of the year to approve the budget.

If, however,  the BOS decides to make changes, those changes are limited. As per Artice XXXII of the PA Second Class Township Code, "Upon any revision of the proposed budget, if the estimated revenues or expenses in the final budget are increased more than ten percent in the aggregate or more than twenty-five percent in any major category over the proposed budget, it may not be legally adopted with those increases unless it is again advertised once at least ten days before adoption and an opportunity given to taxpayers to examine the amended proposed budget. A major category is a group of related revenue or expense items, the combined total of which is listed as a line item."

After November 25 there are two more BOS meetings scheduled: December 9 and December 22, 2020. An additional meeting can be planned if necessary. Consequently, it still would be possible to make some adjustments to the preliminaty budget on December 9, advertise it for 10 days and  approve the final version at the December 22 BOS meeting. Stay tuned!

 

Posted on 11 Nov 2020, 01:16 - Category: Budget