To The Editor:
Kennett Township residents, our taxes are too high! Our Township Supervisors, led by Allan Falcoff, claim our taxes are the 4th lowest of the surrounding Townships. Don’t be fooled. The Supervisors conveniently do not include the .5% Earned Income Tax (EIT), which dwarfs our Township property taxes, in their figures.
The Township’s 2011 budget projects that property taxes will bring in $320,600 – but the earned income tax will bring in an additional $1,600,000! The State of Pennsylvania’s website correctly shows on http://munstatspa.dced.state.pa.us/ that Kennett Township’s total taxes per resident are 35% higher than nearby Townships. Kennett Township has run a sizable surplus every year since they exercised their option to take half of the 1% EIT when the school district implemented it in 1998. Receiving .5% of the collective (very high) income of Kennett Township residents has accumulated over $11,400,000 sitting in Township accounts. Clearly our Township taxes could and should be reduced! What’s worse, the Supervisors refuse to say WHY they won’t reduce our taxes!
Meanwhile, the Kennett Township Supervisors are using the Township’s website and even residents’ water bills to crow about our “low taxes” and their expert management of our tax dollars. The Kennett Township Supervisors are in fact mismanaging our tax dollars — spending tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees fighting Right to Know requests from citizens who have a lot of questions about all this — while swimming in a river of money flowing in from the half percent tax on our earned income.
Scudder Stevens, candidate for Kennett Township Supervisor in the November 8 election, has made this tax issue a centerpiece of his campaign. It is time to vote for Scudder Stevens for Kennett Township Supervisor and reduce your property taxes!
Jeff Yetter
Kennett Township
How does Scudder arrive at his tax numbers? He makes up his own chart!
See this link for some facts:
http://falcoff4supervisor.org/?page_id=3027
We don’t need another Democrat empty promise to lower taxes!
You can check the Township Code at:
http://www.psats.org/subpage.php?pageid=secondclasstownshipcode
Here are the duties of a Supervisor:
Section 607. Duties of Supervisors. -The board of supervisors shall:
(1) Be charged with the general governance of the township and the execution of legislative, executive and administrative powers in order to ensure sound fiscal management and to secure the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the township.
(2) Have the responsibility for maintenance of township-owned equipment and facilities.
(3) Employ persons as may be necessary for the general conduct of the business of the township and provide for the compensation, organization and supervision of the persons so employed. Records shall be kept and reports made and filed giving the names of all persons employed, dates on which work was done and the number of hours worked with compensation paid to each person and the capacity in which employed.
(4) Authorize attendance at conferences, institutes, schools and conventions. Any supervisor, elected or appointed officer or township employe may if directed by the board of supervisors attend any conference, institute, school or convention dealing with the duties and functions of elected or appointed officers or employes. The expenses for attending the meetings may be paid by the township and are limited to the registration fee, mileage for the use of a personal vehicle or reimbursement of actual transportation expense going to and returning from the meeting plus all other actual expenses that the board of supervisors agrees to pay. Every attendee shall submit to the board of supervisors an itemized account of expenses incurred at the meeting. The board of supervisors may authorize employes to be compensated at their regular employe rate, and auditors to be compensated at the rate of ten dollars ($10) for each hour up to a maximum of eight hours per day, during their attendance at the meeting.
(5) Annually, on or before the first day of February, furnish to the board of auditors information on the construction or maintenance of roads or other matters that may be required by any department of the Commonwealth to be included in the annual township report.
(6) Provide for the annual tax duplicate to be prepared and presented to the tax collector.
(7) Perform duties and exercise powers as may be imposed or conferred by law or the rules and regulations of any agency of the Commonwealth. (607 amended by Act 101 of 2006)