Politics & Government

A Look at Aberdeen's 2012 Municipal Budget

The budget was approved and finalized in July, and tax bills have been mailed out to residents

Aberdeen residents recently received their 2012 tax bills in the mail, after the Aberdeen Township Council approved their $15 million budget for the fiscal year on July 17.

The $15,545,464.04 budget is an increase of $456,241 from the 2011 fiscal year budget approved by the township. Disregarding the approximately $300,000 in exceptions, the budget does not exceed the 2% cap increase. Township Manager Holly Reycraft explained that, per law, exceptions are not factored into calculating whether or not a municipal budget increase exceeds the 2% cap. Exeptions include items such as health care and pensions.

The spending plan contains an increase of $415,642.22 to the tax levy, bringing the amount to be raised by taxes in 2012 to $9,368,955, according to Reycraft. This is a decrease of $31,690 from the tax levy that was proposed as part of the budget .

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Despite the slight dip in the tax levy from the 2012 introduced budget to the finalized one, residents still saw an increase to the tax rate. The tax rate is 45.2 cents per $100 of a home's assessed value, Reycraft said. A house assessed at $280,000 would pay $1265.60 in municipal taxes.

According to Reycraft, the increase in the tax rate from 2011 to 2012 is mostly due to the amount of tax appeals filed, which lowered the overall value of the town.

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"Even if the budget didn’t change, there would still have been an increase because the value of the town went down," she said.

Taxes to the municipality are only a portion of the taxes that burden homeowners. Residents must also contribute to , , and state taxes.

"The municipal tax is about 18% of a person's tax bill. So for about every dollar, we get 18 cents," Reycraft said.


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