LOWER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — The newly installed majority of Lower Saucon Township Council moved Thursday toward undoing last month’s property tax cuts by amending the municipality’s 2024 budget.
The move, approved by a 3-1 vote, directs township staff to draft an amendment increasing the municipality’s general real estate tax 0.6 of a mill and its fire tax by 0.15 of a mill.
In the aggregate, the new measure would reverse an 11th-hour 0.75 of a mill general property tax cut from the 2024 budget shortly before it was adopted last month.
If the proposed budget changes are ultimately adopted, Lower Saucon’s overall 2024 property tax rate would be the same as last year’s at 5.14 mills, but higher than the 4.39-mill rate approved in this year’s budget.
After an election, the council can reopen the previous year’s budget, giving the newly installed council members a chance to make amendments.Township rules
Under township rules, after an election, the council can reopen the previous year’s budget, giving the newly installed council members a chance to make amendments.
November's election gave Democrats a three-seat majority on the formerly Republican-controlled body.
Shortly after members of the Lower Saucon Council approved the three-quarter-mill cut, council President Priscilla deLeon said the new majority intended to reopen the budget once it was sworn in.
'Not proposing that we raise taxes'
Because the budget amendment would bring taxes back to 2023 levels and the rates originally planned for 2024, deLeon said, the proposed budget amendment is not a tax increase.
She characterized last month’s tax cut as an irresponsible political gambit.
By unwinding it, deLeon said, the council is “putting our budget back to having it a livable budget.”
“The millage that was proposed in October was a total of 5.14 [mills]. That's what you’d have paid in 2023, so I am not proposing that we raise taxes in any way shape or form.”Victoria Opthof-Cordaro
“The millage that was proposed in October was a total of 5.14 [mills]. That's what you’d have paid in 2023,” said newly elected Councilwoman Victoria Opthof-Cordaro.
“So I am not proposing that we raise taxes in any way shape or form.”
Jason Banonis, the only member of council present Thursday who voted in favor of the initial tax cut, forcefully opposed efforts to unwind it.
“They want to take more and more. That’s what they want to do,” he said of the council’s Democrats. “So the first order of business as a new council is to raise your taxes.”
Once the township staff put together an amended budget, it will be available for public viewing at the township’s offices and website. The council will vote on approving the new budget by Feb. 15.
