Evesham Twp. budget holds line on taxes

EVESHAM The Township Council has introduced a $33.64 million budget for 2015 that calls for no increase in municipal property taxes.

Mayor Randy Brown told a budget workshop of the council Tuesday that the proposed budget would entail a municipal property levy of $21.83 million, fractionally smaller than this year's. He foresaw no reduction in services.

The council voted unanimously to accept the proposed budget, which will be presented to the state for review.

If the proposal is adopted at the council's June 10 meeting, an owner of a home assessed at the township average of $271,200 would pay about $1,139 in municipal property taxes.

"We're doing more with less," Brown said before the meeting. The township has 170 employees, 55 fewer than when he became mayor in 2007.

Anticipated increases in court fines and construction fees are expected to make up for the $109,000 reduction in the levy, Brown said.

The municipal budget represents 16 percent of the local property tax bill. Local schools are about 40 percent; the Lenape Regional high school district, 23 percent; Burlington County, 14 percent; and the fire district 5 percent.

The municipal budget operates on a calendar year.

While property that can be taxed raises $266 million less than it did five years ago, as a result of the recession, the town is seeing significantly fewer appeals by property owners for reductions in their assessments, Brown said.

The township also earned about $2 million in February by selling off 30 acres at Evesboro and Sharp Roads. Developer Eric Ford plans to build 33 single-family homes, which Brown said would generate construction and hookup fees and about $500,000 a year in property tax revenues.

The town acquired the property in 2000 but never developed it for recreation.

"We were dumping leaves on it," Brown said.