Township Proposes 8.3% Tax Increase

In a Sunday night email to ward residents, Haverford Township 4th Ward Commissioner Dan Siegel released the proposed 2012 township budget that calls for an 8.3 percent tax increase.

Township Manager Larry Gentile is predicting that the 2012 budget may total $35,866,723, according to Siegel. (Editor's note: In his email, 4th Ward Commissioner Dan Siegel stated that the budget was $36,866,723, but careful inspect of the proposed budget reveals the figure to actually be $35,866,723.)

At a special public meeting at 7 p.m., Monday, Nov. 21, at , the commissioners will discuss the proposed budget, which accompanies this article as a 71-paged PDF document.

Last year, the Haverford Township Board of Commissioners approved the .

In his email, Siegel listed some of the “budget factors” for the proposed tax increase:

• A $688,000 increase in contributions to the police and non-uniform personnel pension plans

• Gasoline price increases (in 2011 the cost of gas and diesel fuel was $2.12.16; the cost of gas is now $3.1133 and the cost of diesel fuel is $4.1199)

• Insurance coverage increases

• Litigation costs, including the cost of opposing billboards

• The cost of emergency repairs to the township's aging sanitary and storm water sewer systems (more than $3 million over the past three years)

• The difficult economy, which has resulted in decreasing revenues