Sussex Borough passes slight tax increas

SUSSEX BOROUGH — The Sussex Borough Council voted Tuesday night to adopt the 2017 municipal budget that sees a modest increase of about $20 to the average household.
According to a presentation by CPA Thomas Ferry, the municipal tax rate under the new budget would increase from $0.752 per $100 of assessed value to $0.758 per $100.
“It’s good, in fact it’s great,” said Ferry.
For the average Sussex Borough house assessed at $180,044, that translates to an annual tax increase of $19.72, or $1.64 a month. The budget approved Tuesday night does not include school taxes, which are decided separately by the School Board in their own budget meetings.
The 2017 Borough budget calls for a total of $1,438,532.11, an increase of $12,266.11, or 0.86 percent over the 2016 budget.
About 63 percent of the budget goes to general municipal purpose spending, while 13 percent goes to capital improvements, and 6 percent to debt service. Another 7 percent goes toward shared services with other townships and another 8 percent for uncollected taxes.
The total revenue of the Borough, not including taxes is $489,547.11, leaving a total of $948,985 to be raised from the taxpayers, or about 66 percent of the total budget. This is $22,109, an overall 2.39 percent increase over last year.
In addition, the borough receives 13 percent of its revenue from state aid, 10 percent from the fund balance, and another 3 percent from local revenue.
The reason for the slight increase is actually due to people paying their delinquent taxes. In 2016, the borough collected $128,000 in in delinquent taxes, much higher than expected, meaning this year there isn’t as much revenue expected from delinquent taxes, because they’ve been paid already.
This year the Borough only expects to receive $81,000 from delinquent taxes, 37 percent less than last year. The difference was made up from taking $41,500 extra from the fund balance.
“We took this from the fund balance to keep taxes low,” Ferry said.
Ferry commented that it was a, “good thing, because more people are paying their taxes.”
Sussex Borough can tout a %97.63 tax collection rate.
This has contributed to the overall growth of the borough. In 2016, the value of the town, not including schools, churches and public buildings, was $123,221,100, this year it is valued at $125,198,800, an increase of almost $2 million or 1.61%
As the value of the town goes up, so does the value of the average home. This year, the average borough home is worth $1,239 more, up from $178,805 in 2016, to $180,044 this year.
Council President Robert Holowach and Council Member Edward Meyer were absent for the vote.
Also, Council Member Mario Poggi, with the help of borough administrator Michael Restel, unveiled the banner to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Crescent Theater. Poggi, who is heavily involved with the theater, said he paid for the banner himself.