For nearly seventeen years, Washington Township has been able to provide services to its residents without the necessity of increasing the real estate tax. The current milage stands at .81 mils, which equates to the owner of a $100,000 home paying $81 to the Township per year. Please don’t confuse your tax bill with those amounts obtained by the School District or the County. Washington Township receives only a very small portion of the total real estate tax pie. The Township has been very cognizant of the burden that taxes can and have placed on the residents of our fine community. Over the years, Council has continually asked for dramatic changes in policy and operations in order to maintain those low taxes and continue to offer a good value to its residents.

 Some of those changes included reduction in work force, part-time rather than full-time labor, use of summer-only employees and many operational changes that reduced costs as well, including reductions in equipment, benefit contributions by employees, removal of benefits, and the list goes on. Each year the challenge of “doing more with less” has been the forefront of the decision making process. The downturn in the economy only made the burden even heavier. Cost for daily operations and large projects have skyrocketed. Fuel has more than doubled and materials like antiskid and asphalt continue to increase significantly. Yet we have not increased taxes proportionally. There are only three consistent avenues available to maintain a balanced budget for any community: One is to reduce costs by doing things like previously mentioned. The next is to have continual growth that keeps pace with the inflating costs of the municipality. Housing subdivisions, commercial growth etc, contribute not only via fees, but property taxes and earned income tax as well. Lastly is to increase fees and/or taxes.

 Our community used to see 15 to 20 homes built each year. The last few years have been far below that. We haven’t had any commercial growth and currently the housing market in Washington Township is down because there are few if any affordable houses available for the younger families to purchase. This leaves the last but least popular choice of raising taxes. The proposed 2012 budget will see an increase to 1.0 mil or $100 for a $100,000 accessed home, an increase of $19. The increase in revenue will be placed directly in the roads capital improvement line item.

 The harsh winters we experience in Washington Township have dealt more than one costly blow to the general fund budget. We all recall the recent springs when the roads literally blew up and required expensive repairs. The budget is still reeling for those disasters and the construction and placement of three bridges from the 2004 flood didn’t make the budgeting process any easier.

Combine all of the above statements and conditions together and you can see that the inevitable is the necessity to increase the taxes for the first time in 17 years. Many administrations regularly include a slight increase over the years to allow for inflation etc. Washington Township has chosen to tighten its belt and make every effort to avoid an increase. We have reached the last hole in the belt and now feel that an increase is justifiable. No one wants to pay more, but if you look at what you got for your $81 plus per year, you should be confident that frugality was the driving force. We trust you will understand and appreciate this tough decision. Although the Water and Sewer funds continue to operate VERY lean, at this time we don’t see a need to increase those rates. It is important to remember that the goal of these funds is to pay for debt service, operation, and maintenance. Unfortunately, a reserve fund no longer exists for either of these, but in order to keep rates at a minimum, it is necessary to live somewhat vicariously. Please join us in making our community a better place to live and remember good things are always happening in Washington Township. Visit our new and improved website at www.washington-township.info for additional information about your local government.