Category: Budget

 

A $35,000 Salary Raise While Taxpayers Face a 15% Tax Hike?

 

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Posted on 29 Oct 2026, 11:52 - Category: Budget

 

Proposed Draft 2026 Newtown Township Budget

 

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Posted on 23 Oct 2025, 01:54 - Category: Budget

 

"Scary" #NewtownPA 2025 Proposed Budget "Hung"

 

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Posted on 27 Oct 2024, 01:07 - Category: Budget

 

Supervisors Vote to "Hang" the Preliminary 2021 Budget

At the November 25, 2020, Newtown Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, the supervisors voted 4-1 (Kyle Davis voting "nay") to advertise (aka, "hang") the preliminary 2021 Newtown Township budget.

This was NOT an approval of the proposed budget. The earliest that supervisors can vote to approve the budget is December 22, 2020.

I voted to advertise the budget so that residents can finally see the numbers and to give them more time to suggest changes.

See the budget embedded below or download it here.

This is the first opportunity for the public to view the numbers and other details of the proposed budget. The public will have 20 days for this review after the advertisement appears in a local newspaper on Monday, November 30, 2020, before the BOS can vote to finally approve the budget OR a modified version of the budget.

What Changes Can Be Made?

Once the budget is "hung" only limited INCREASES in revenue can be made without re-advertising for 10 days, according to the Second Class Township Code, Section 3202:

“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.”

At the meeting, Newtown Solicitor David Sander confirmed that DECREASES in expenditures and/or revenues can be made WITHOUT re-advertising. This essentially gives the BOS more time to consider and vote upon reducing revenue and/or expenses to lower the proposed 133% increase in municipal property tax. 

The BOS will be able to vote on the final budget (including any agreed upon decreases in revenue & expenses) at the scheduled Dec 22 regular BOS session. Meanwhile, there is another regular BOS session scheduled for Dec 9 and a "work session" on Dec 14 where changes can be discussed. Changes can be made even at the Dec 22 BOS meeting and a special session can be called before Dec 31 to approve the final budget.

Register for the December 7, 2020, "Meet Mack Monday" Zoom "town hall" meeting where this budget will be discussed with interested residents.

Let's Put the Tax Increase in Perspective

The average Newtown Township homeowner such as myself pays about $4,800 in TOTAL property taxes each year. However, only about 3% of that – about $144 – is levied by Newtown Township. Bucks County gets $802 and the Council Rock School District (CRSD) gets a whopping $3,862!

Therefore, the 133% tax increase mentioned above applies to $144, which would increase to $336 for the average hownowner.

Related Content

• How to Calculate Your Yearly Newtown Township Property Tax
• Newtown Township's Proposed Tax Increase Put Into Perspective
• Newtown Supervisors Vote to Revise Preliminary Budget
• SURVEY: What Would You Cut From the Proposed 2021 Newtown Township Budget?
• Resident Comments Regarding the Proposed 2021 Budget

The Preliminary 2021 Budget

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Posted on 27 Nov 2020, 01:52 - Category: Budget

 

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!

 

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

 

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