Morrisville budget maintains taxes, lowers trash bills
Morrisville Municpal Building, 35 Union Street
Posted: Monday, December 12, 2011 9:07 pm | Updated: 11:42 pm, Mon Dec 12, 2011.
Taxes will remain high but trash bills will go down in Morrisville under the final budget adopted Monday night by the borough council.
The official borough spending plan for 2012 would charge residents about $52 less for trash pickup next year.
The municipal tax rate is projected to remain at 40.93 mills. The owners of average home assessed at $20,000 will pay $818 to the borough.
Municipal tax bills in Morrisville are among the highest in Lower Bucks.
By comparison, the average assessed homeowner paid about $967 to Upper Makefield last year. Taxes averaged about $798 in Bristol.
There was little comment during Morrisville’s budget session, which lasted less than 10 minutes in the borough hall.
Council members Eileen Dreisbach and Todd Sanford voted against the official spending plan.
Sanford said he disagreed with the budgeted salary increase of 28 percent for borough manager Tom Bates. The manager’s salary could increase to $45,000 from $32,000, officials said.
“In my opinion, that’s just too much money to spend on the manager of a borough like ours,” said Bates. “We’re only 2 square miles.”
Dreisbach said she voted against the budget because the document wasn’t clear. Expenses such as personnel are broken down into various accounts making it difficult to track spending, she said.
Morrisville’s budget comprises eight separate funds totaling $5.8 million.
Roughly 27 percent of that money goes to support the police department. A nearly equal amount of $1.6 million goes to support trash pickup and the water department.
Morrisville expects to spend $560,409, or 10 percent of its budget, on the administration while another 5 percent is spent on recreational programs.
The borough would set aside $272,000 for payments on loans issued in 2002 and 2004.
Budget documents released to the newspaper do not include any fund balances, or money left in the reserve.
The borough has no reserves, said Bates. Morrisville has a contingency fund of about $180,000 for emergencies, he said.
12 comments:
"Taxes will remain high but trash bills will go down in Morrisville under the final budget adopted Monday night by the borough council."
What a crappy way for the reporter to start a story that I would think should have been positive for Morrisville, but isn't.
This article is so typical of the problems that our little borough faces as its looked upon by the rest of the world. When other towns have no tax increase they get great headlines and a flattering article is written about them. And here is our little Morrisville Borough, able to balance the town's budget for the upcoming year for the first time in years. They found ways to save a bunch of money throughout the 2011 year with the help of their new manager, were able to make improvements throughout the borough, buy equipment (which is unheard of) and not only are they not raising taxes for 2012, they are lowering our trash bills more than 2 mills (ever seen that before?) and they still get a negative article about their progress.
You're right, it does have a negative spin on it. Here's the comparable article for Bristol. This must have been the rejected headline:
"Bristol taxes stuck on high, but not as high as Morrisville's"
Bristol holds line on taxes again
Posted: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 5:00 am | Updated: 7:00 am, Tue Dec 13, 2011.
By Chris English Staff Writer | 0 comments
The Bristol Council at Monday night’s meeting approved a final 2012 budget that for the sixth straight year holds the line on borough property taxes.
Total property tax millage will remain at 49.89, or $798 for a resident with a property assessed at the borough average of $16,000.
In the general fund, the main budget fund that covers police and most other operations, $699,000 of a $713,000 surplus is being used to help balance the budget and offset the need for any tax increase, said borough Manager Jim Dillon.
Council members aren’t too concerned about the low surplus because Bristol still has $24 million in the bank from the sale of the borough’s water system several years ago.
Council president Ralph DiGuiseppe and members Lorraine Cullen, Leo Pienski Jr., Pat Sabatini, Betty Rodriguez, Robyn Trunell and Anthony Muccie voted to approve the budget. Council member Jim Lutz was the only no vote.
Lutz had stated at previous budget meetings that more money could be saved. Also, his motion Monday night that the borough allocate an additional $10,000 to its five fire companies, or $2,000 apiece, died for lack of a second. Bristol already gives each of the five companies $16,500 a year.
“I entirely support our fire companies but I feel bullied into this,” said Trunell of Lutz’s request for additional fire company money. “We’ll revisit this next year when we’re certain it won’t be a burden on taxpayers.”
Lutz denied any bullying and said the council had heard a thorough report from a borough fire official during a previous budget hearing on why the additional money was warranted.
The $11.98 million 2012 budget contains 3 percent raises for the borough’s 18 police union members and 5 percent raises for 19 employees who are members of other unions. Nonunion employees other than Dillon will get 3 percent raises.
Dillon volunteered to keep his salary at $115,000 in 2012. Police Chief Arnold Porter’s 3 percent raise will increase his salary to $94,511 next year.
Dillon said 8.82 mills in taxes, or $650,000, is needed for the annual mortgage payment on the borough-owned Grundy Recreation Center.
that is really sad
Bristol & Morrisville are comparing apples and oranges. We don't have the same tax base.
Interesting that the reporter chose not to compare the borough manager salaries.
Upper Makefield's jewelry rattles when it laughs!
Here's Upper Makefield's comparable article. This one says their average homeowner will pay $850 this year. According to this article, it was $883 last year, not $967 like the other article says. Details schmeetails.
U. Makefield supervisors decrease taxes
Posted: Thursday, November 3, 2011 5:00 am | Updated: 6:55 am, Thu Nov 3, 2011.
U. Makefield supervisors decrease taxes By DANNY ADLER Staff writer Calkins Media, Inc. | 2 comments
The Upper Makefield supervisors on Wednesday approved a final 2012 budget that includes a half-mill decrease in municipal property taxes, which amounts to about $33 for the average homeowner.
Supervisors Conrad Baldwin, Dan Rattigan and Mary Ryan voted in favor of the spending plan. Supervisor Tom Cino voted against it since the budget’s General Fund includes $500,000 more in expenses than revenue. Supervisor Dave Kulig was absent from the board’s meeting.
Under the new budget, the municipality’s tax millage rate will drop from the current rate of 13.3525 mills to 12.8525 mills next year. In order to do that, the township is shifting one mill of the Open Space Fund into the General Fund, doubling that fund’s millage, and then reducing the remaining Open Space Fund by a half-mill. Officials said they are able to do that because the township refinanced some of its open space debt this year.
Under the new millage rate, the municipal property tax bill for the owner of a home assessed at the township’s average assessment of $66,099 will be $850. Under the 2011 millage rate, that same homeowner pays about $883.
The $9.02 million governmental spending plan is made up of a $5.71 million General Fund and 10 other smaller funds.
Cino, the lone nay vote, requested the board table any action on the spending plan at Wednesday’s meeting “so we can do further work on issues relating to the budget.”
“If we don’t take action to balance that cash flow we will have to do it next year or the year after. ... We may be forced to actually raise taxes to balance the budget in future years,” Cino said.
“I think we have been prudent,” Baldwin, the board’s chairman, said. “I can understand what Tom is saying but I would like to get this thing moving and then we can start being as fiscally responsible next year as we were this year.”
Is this any surprise to anyone? With the way we've publicly beat ourselves up over the years (See Hellman's comment on investing in Morrisville for a good example)it's only to be expected that the surrounding communities look askance at the Ville. Ever hear of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Oh, that and the fact that some (See Pbury SD comment regarding the proposed merger some years ago)individuals feel we have an undesirable demographic, which is really just PC speak for "You have brown people, and we don't like them.)
I still wonder why the trash collection is separate from the regular tax bill. Can anyone shed some light on why this is? If it had the same "we'll put a lien on your property" weight as the taxes, I suspect we'd have far fewer delinquencies. Perhaps this is callous, but with the delinquency rate as high as has been published here and elsewhere, this is beyond a few hardship cases.
Meanwhile, the extremely high rate of rental properties in the town will continue to contribute to a reduced sense of community and bring the social ills that accompany a transient population. This isn't to say that all renters aren't good citizens, but with so many residents being "temporary" we are bound to have more individuals who are not invested in the welfare of the community.
Several elected officials are setting a bad bad tone by not paying tax, water, sewer, trash bills.
This morning I watched the rebroadcast of last night’s council meeting. I understand that there are probably those who participate on this blog who like Eileen and/or Todd sitting on council. I get that. You may not agree with what I am about to say. They both asked simple questions they should have be able to figure out, couldn’t figure some things out at all, and complained about every good thing happening. When talking about a project currently being worked on that will finally pave Nolan Ave (thank goodness), and give it new curbs and lights all for FREE, Eileen & Todd bashed the project. I had no idea Eileen was so business unfriendly until I watched last night’s meeting, this morning. I also had no idea that neither one of these people reads their material ahead of time. When talking about a proposed FREE audit of the entire borough I couldn’t believe how negative both of these people were. I would think they would at least google the company being talked about before the meeting. (I would be wrong-they obviously do not) I'm no fan of Eileen and Todd to begin with, but I never realized until this morning, how detrimental their decision making as council members is to our community.
Some people are just negative about everything unless they can find a way to accumulate credit or profit to themselves.
I know, and you can read all about it in my upcoming book. $29.99 hardcover. $19.99 paperback.
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