Middletown Township is proposing to double its earned income tax and increase property taxes for 2026, changes that would cost the average household around $500 more annually, writes JD Mullane for the Bucks County Courier Times.
With this additional revenue, the township could lower its $2.8 million deficit, hire more personnel, and tackle a backlog of capital projects estimated at $60 million through 2030.
According to the proposed budget’s executive summary, these tax increases are necessary to preserve public services at their current levels.
“It is clear that (Middletown) residents demand a high level of service from their municipal government,” said township Manager Eden Ratcliffe in the budget’s executive summary. “This budget contemplates a funding plan to fulfill that expectation.”
The summary further states that Middletown has been “balancing its operations” in recent years by “spending down its fund balance,” or savings. Last year’s budget was adopted with an almost $3 million “structural deficit in the General Fund, which has historically grown by $1 million annually.”
Read more about the proposed income and property tax increases in Middletown in the Bucks County Courier Times.
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