Dec 5, 2019 2 min read

Cecil Township supervisors voted Monday to keep 2020 property taxes at current rates.

The five-member board voted to keep total real estate taxes at 1.5 mills for next year’s budget of $10.07 million.

That rate translates to $1.50 for every $1,000 in property value, or $150 for a house assessed at $100,000.

The budget is roughly $600,000 larger than this year’s, which is $9.44 million. The largest increase in spending was because of contractual obligations for salaries and other personnel costs within the police department, whose other expenses like supplies and equipment are mostly expected to remain constant. Next year’s budget increases spending on the department by about $500,000, to $3.65 million.

Personnel costs similarly accounted for increases in other departments. For example, increases in salaries made up the bulk of the $130,000 increase in budgeted expenses for public works, whose budget is $1.59 million next year.

Like this year, next year’s millage rate is mostly earmarked for the general fund, which receives 1.05 mills of property owners’ tax bills. Another .27 mills goes toward fire protection, while the remaining .18 mills toward road machinery.

Total revenue from property taxes is forecast to be $2.23 million. This year’s collections came to $2.18 million, or about $170,000 more than officials anticipated when they prepared the 2019 plan.