October 27, 2024: Just in time for Halloween, the “scary” proposed 2025 #NewtownPA budget has been “hung” (i.e., advertised in the Bucks County Courier Times).
The budget must be hung/advertised for 20 days before the Board of Supervisors (BOS) can take further action on it. The next meeting of the BOS is 13 November 2024.
It can still be changed – e.g., by adding a 2 or more mills tax increase for fire services – but in that case, the new version would need to be re-advertised for 10 days.
What makes it scary is the “budgetary maneuvering” of fund transfers, the terrible formatting, which makes it difficult to read and compare with previous budgets, and the salary increases ranging up to 25% to 27%! [See table of proposed salary increases below.]
Listen to the comments made at the 23 October 2024 BOS meeting by Newtown Resident Frank McCarron. He was specifically concerned about lack of funding for paid firefighters and did not understand why the budget surplus every year was much higher than anticipated.
More Comments By Mr. McCarron
Mr. McCarron also forwarded to me some "General Notes."
Regarding the Terrible Format of the 2025 Budget, Mr. McCarron had these comments and questions:
"The budget document is hard to follow. Last year’s budget, on the other hand, had a caption at the top of each page above the Revenue accounts and a caption on the top of each page above the Expenditure accounts. And at the end of the Revenue accounts, there was a separate line item for Total Current Revenues and a separate line item for Total Available Balance, which you would find before the accounts having to do with expenditures. And after the last of the Expenditure accounts, there was a total for Operating Expenditures, a total for transfers to other funds, a Total Expenditures with Transfers, and a net Results from Operations for the difference between current revenues and operating expenditures.”
“Why did the format change for the 2025 budget?” asked Mr. McCarron.
Regarding Declining Sources of Revenue, Mr. McCarron had these comments and questions:
“General Fund revenues are $1.2 million lower in 2025 than 2024.
$(240,000) decrease in Local Tax (EIT Resident revenue down)
$(216,000) decrease in State and Federal Grants
$(96,000) decrease in Charges for services – REC
Other decreases are State shared revenue, real property taxes, recycling grants, reimbursements.”
“Why are all these revenues declining?” asked Mr. McCarron.
Regarding the Increasing Deficit, Mr. McCarron had these comments and questions:
“According to the bar graph on page S-14 (see below), operational results are trending worse since 2021 and are negative in both 2024 and 2025,” said Mr. McCarron.
Is this why the Township Manager is not proposing to add any new hires in 2025?
Is there a hiring freeze in effect? Department heads have requested to hire several new employees in 2025, none of which are in the budget. That includes 5 in public works, as well as several new police officers and firefighters.
Can the Township Manager confirm that he has talked to all the department heads and concluded that the 79 full-time employees at the end of 2024 are an adequate number for 2025?
What about tradeoffs, such as the police chief buying 3 police cars each year instead of 4, so he can hire another officer? Has there been any instances in the past year when either the police or fire couldn’t respond timely to an incident?
If we are instituting a hiring freeze in 2025, what does that mean for hiring in 2026, given that our operating deficit is trending worse each year?
“In terms of salary increases,” said a resident who prefers to remain anonymous, “the Township Manager had said at the last meeting that salaries of exempt personnel were adjusted to remain competitive in today’s market. The budget includes double digit salary increases for exempt personnel.”
I prepared the following Excel sheet (updated on 11/14/24) to summarize the proposed salary increases:
As you can see, executive salary increases are being increased by as much as 19% whereas support staff are getting only single digit salary increases! “This seems to be high,” said the resident. “I would recommend that these executive salaries be revised to a more modest single digit increase, in line with what is budgeted for support staff,” advised the resident.
October 27, 2024: Just in time for Halloween, the “scary” proposed 2025 #NewtownPA budget has been “hung” (i.e., advertised in the Bucks County Courier Times).
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