(12/15) At its December meeting, the Carroll Valley Borough Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2022 budget and 2022 Tax Resolutions without tax increase.
The Council passed the Tax Levy Ordinance, which fixed the Tax Rate at 2.45 mills or 24.5 cents on each one hundred dollars of assessed valuation for 2016.
No tax increase means the property tax rate is proposed to remain the same. The Borough portion of a property tax bill is only a small portion of the total property taxes paid by residents each year, according to Borough Manager David Hazlett.
"The borough has not seen a tax increase in several years," he said.
This lack of tax increase is unlike municipalities such as Liberty Township, who implemented a .5 millage tax rate increase, equivalent to $50 tax per $100,000 of assessed property value.
In turn, to offset the rising cost of operations, Liberty Supervisors regretfully had to make between 40 and 60 percent increase in costs to provide township services.
In 2021, the Borough is expected to collect $1,033,834 in property related taxes, $90,000 from the real estate transfer tax, $102,000 from the fire tax, $61,000 from the Comcast cable franchise license, and $600,000 from income taxes.
In addition, the Borough balance sheet was increased by $114,000 from ‘public safety’ related revenue streams including a $76,000 reimbursement from Fairfield for police service, $11,000 from sewage and storm water permits, and $2,500 from vehicle impoundment fees.
The Borough also benefits to the tune of $115,000 from various state shared revenue sources like police pension aid ($30,000), employee pension aid ($54,000) and payments from the Foreign Fire Insurance program ($30,000).
When all the miscellaneous revenue streams are totaled, the Borough expects to take in $2,342,157 this year. However, only 13.6 percent, or ~ $318,512 of that goes to the Borough government to cover the Borough’s operating cost. The remainder goes to the Fairfield School District ~ $1,446,653 (61.77%) and Adams County siphons off ~542,515 (23.25). Only 1.39% of the total revenue, or ~$32,535 goes to support local Fire and EMS services
By far, the main portion of borough expenditures goes toward police at $522,273; Borough, non-police, employee salaries - $341,828, and streets and infrastructure at $522,573. The borough also paid $164,474 for pensions.
