Final budget up for vote
NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP
Supervisors have demanded the two unions that represent municipal employees agree to concessions to avoid layoffs.
Newtown Township’s supervisors will consider the final 2011 budget at a special meeting tonight.
The focus of budget discussions this month has been on potential layoffs involving police officers, firefighters and municipal workers. to boost the township’s dwindling savings, officials demanded the two unions that represent municipal employees agree to concessions to avoid layoffs, even though the union contracts don’t expire until the end of next year.
Township Manager Joe Czajkowski said Monday night that the township will meet the first week of January with the unions that represent 58 township employees. That’s after the state-mandated Dec. 31 deadline to approve a spending plot.
Although the supervisors are expected to vote on the budget tonight, the amount of money that will be in the township’s savings at the end of 2011 largely hangs on whether the unions agree to the concessions sought by the township. Supervisor Mike Gallagher said the budget to be considered tonight doesn’t include layoffs, assuming they can agree to at least $300,000 in concessions.
The supervisors meet at 7:30 tonight at town hall, 100 Municipal Drive.
With the need for $600,000 or so to be added to its coffers, the township wants union members to agree to wage freezes and increased contributions toward health benefits, among other concessions. if they don’t, township officials say pink slips could go out.
A letter stating just that was sent to the Newtown Township Police Benevolent Association, which represents police, and the Communication Workers of America Local 13000, which represents the township’s firefighters and municipal workers.
The township is proposing a $14.7 million spending plot with no tax increase for 2011. but that includes dipping into the township’s savings, which would drop to roughly $365,000 by the end of next year. that would be down from $3 million in 2007.
Some township officials say they want at least $1 million in reserves.
"The budget is an estimate," Czajkowski wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. "if they don’t get all of the concessions, the year-end balance will change. Rarely does the budget turn out exactly as passed."
"there have been no agreements yet, but talks continue," Supervisors Chairman Rob Ciervo wrote to the newspaper in an e-mail. "The township has demonstrated flexibility in some of the areas of concessions proposed in our letters to the unions and we remain optimistic about agreements."
The township asked the unions to forgo a wage increase due Jan. 1; agree to pay 25 percent of the township’s monthly premium cost for health care and prescription coverage (union employees now contribute about 10 percent); and agree to the suspension of the township’s obligation to contribute a match for employees’ 457 Deferred Compensation Plot in 2011.
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In addition to those demands, a union official said, the township asked non-police union employees to contribute 5 percent of their salary to their pensions, as the police do already. The township also wants municipal workers with a 40-hour workweek to reduce it to 36 hours, with a corresponding reduction in pay, he said.
Jim Gardler, president of the CWA Local 13000, said his union will speak next week with the township to help officials address the budget and "have some constructive discussions to see if there’s some way or somewhere we can help them resolve the shortfall.
"We may have some alternatives," he added. "hopefully we can get this thing resolved."
The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching Newtown Township Police Benevolent Association officials for comment Tuesday.
At a meeting last week, roughly 200 union members, union supporters and residents crammed into town hall. Many in attendance claimed that reducing any staff would impact public safety. others, including some residents who spoke publicly, said they’d support a tax increase to avoid layoffs. however, one woman who spoke at the meeting said that the burden shouldn’t fall solely on residents.
Union supporters in the days leading up to that meeting took out full-page ads in this newspaper calling to "stop the layoffs."
An earlier budget proposal by Czajkowski, the township manager, included no cuts in services for a municipal property tax increase of about $47 for the owner of a home with the average township assessment of $37,495.
The average homeowner pays about $94 in municipal property taxes at a 2.5 mill tax rate. a bulk of the township’s revenues is generated through the earned income tax. Revenues from the tax have been hit terribly because of the struggling economy over the last few years, Ciervo has said. to make up for the lost EIT revenue, the township has dipped into its savings.
Newtown Township residents pay a 1 percent EIT; half goes to the township and the other half to the Council Rock School District. EIT revenue makes up more than 50 percent of total township revenues, officials said. Officials estimate the EIT will bring in about $5.8 million for 2010 and are budgeting $6.1 million for next year.
Employment costs are the township’s No. 1 expense, officials say. The township has 68 full-time employees. Fifty-eight are union – 30 police, 10 public works, nine fire and nine in codes, finance and parks and recreation, according to the manager. Ten are non-union.
In March, the township laid off two employees – one custodian and one employee whose main duties involved maintaining the township’s website.
Danny Adler can be reached at 215-949-4205 or dadler@phillyBurbs.com. Follow him at twitter.com/adleronscene.