Lansdale OKs 2025 budget with tax hike

It’s official: Lansdale residents will have a trio of cost hikes to deal with in 2025.

Borough council voted unanimously on Dec. 18 to approve a budget for the upcoming year with increases in the town’s tax, sewer, and electric rates, along with warnings that more hikes could follow soon.

“Tonight, I’m pleased to present to you a proposed 2025 budget that is balanced: about $21.65 million for both revenue and expenses for 2025.So how did we get there?” said borough Manager John Ernst.

“A month ago, we were presenting several options, with different millage increases. We are honing down on one option tonight, and the option we are recommending is for a 0.75-mill increase for 2025,” he said.

In November council heard a budget presentation from staff about budget scenarios for the upcoming year, and the percentages of the budget allocated to set costs like personnel wages and benefits, healthcare costs, debt service, and various enterprise funds like the town’s sewer and electric departments. The budget outline came after several presentations about more possible major expenses, including repairs and renovations to the town’s two pools, increased costs for transmission of electricity the town resells to residents, and traffic safety upgrades for speeding and safety concerns in several neighborhoods.

During the November budget presentation, staff outlined several scenarios, and details on the costs to taxpayers and revenues raised from varying levels of tax and rate hikes, while council members vowed to seek spending cuts to keep the tax hike as low as possible. Under the proposal now adopted by the town, raising the millage to 8.0 mills, or 0.75 mills above the current level, would increase that resident’s tax bill to $1,040 per year or about $87 per month, roughly $8 per month over the current bill. Based on the average customer’s electric bill in September 2024, that customer currently pays $178 per month to the borough, compared to $183 to PPL and $203 to PECO, and that five percent rate hike would increase that bill to $187 per month when a proposed five percent rate hike takes effect, the manager said.

During their final meeting of the year on Dec. 18, Ernst said the latest proposal from staff would raise the borough’s millage from the 7.25 mills last modified in 2022 for 2023, to 8.0 mills, which would create roughly $587,000 in new revenue from taxpayers to the borough, and require zero spending from reserves.

Changes from the earlier budget drafts include delaying a parks and recreation comprehensive plan update from one year to two, since doing so may require that much time to gather input and feedback from residents, according to the manager.

Two police vehicle additions were initially requested as purchases, but will instead be leases, saving roughly two-thirds of the estimated $180,000 purchase price for two new vehicles. A line item for a contribution to VSMC — EMS, the regional emergency management agency headquartered in Hatfield that has made the case for taxpayer dollars to several local towns in recent years — has been cut from $25,000 in 2024 to the same amount in 2025: “there was discussion about maybe increasing it, we are going to keep it the same as we did last year,” Ernst said. The final savings will come from deferring design and engineering work for several culverts in the borough, part of a long list of infrastructure projects needed around the town, which could be covered in part by a bond borrowing in the upcoming year.

Other changes since earlier drafts include increasing funding to the Lansdale Public Library, adding $100,000 to that facility, along with shared services the borough will take over “so the library doesn’t have to contract separately for those services,” yielding an additional $25,000 in savings. The budget will also pre-engineer and design certain public works projects like road and stormwater inlet repairs and upgrades, and the budget also includes funding for paving paths that run through the Wissahickon Park, York and Susquehanna Park, and Memorial Park, per the manager.

That park trail paving will likely be covered by an anticipated $10.6 million bond borrowing slated for early 2025, similar to a series of three bonds the town took out in 2010, ’12 and ’14; the parks and rec department will also use roughly $3 million of that bond for a major renovation of Whites Road Pool, as presented to council in May. Other capital projects covered by the bond could include paving and repairs to Edgemont Avenue, Poplar Street, North Cannon Avenue and West Third Street, according to the manager.

Rate hikes are also included: the proposed budget includes a five percent electric rate increase slated to take effect in May 2025, which staff have said will be needed to meet increased electric capacity and transmission costs hitting customers nationwide, and a ten percent sewer rate increase that was approved in 2023 and will take effect in September 2025. The millage increase will raise the average homeowner’s tax bill by roughly $100 per year, before the sewer and electric rate increases, the manager told council. And those hikes might not be over soon: added expenses anticipated in 2026 could include a new contract with the town’s police union, a review of employee benefits, and a fee schedule update “to make sure that the revenues we receive, for the services we provide, are appropriate for the work that we do.”

“What we have presented, not only addresses the current needs of what we have in the borough, but also begins to look ahead to 2026,” he said.

Council President Mary Fuller thanked Ernst and the town’s department heads for their work on the budget, and council for vetting it, before explaining why she backed the request for the 0.75-mill increase.

“Last year, you may remember, when we ended the year we did no tax increase, with the promise, for the most part, that we knew we’d have to do one this year,” she said.

“We were hoping to do half a mill. In looking at the numbers, we really probably should’ve gone to 1 mill to really set us up for 2026, but collectively I think our stomach settled on three-quarters of a mill, so that folks weren’t over-burdened. We hate to have to raise taxes, we’re residents too,” Fuller said.

The council president then gave a reminder that roughly 80 percent of the budget is allocated to salaries, benefits and other fixed expenses council has little control over, said changes could be made to reduce costs during the year if needed, then gave a preview of how the conversation could go in a year.

“In 2026 we will, in all likelihood, have a smaller tax increase, but a tax increase. We’ll just unload some of the burden onto this year, so we can continue to have a balanced budget, and one that does not draw from our general fund, so we can reserve that money for when we need it,” she said.

Councilwoman Carrie Oglesby, chair of the administration and finance committee said this was “the most challenging budget season of my career on council” over the past decade-plus, and said she had several possible cuts in spending in mind to revisit during the year.

Fuller added that she’s had talks with borough staff about upcoming road paving and repair projects tentatively scheduled for future years, and said that’s one reason for the millage hike, to pre-fund projects wherever possible.

Councilman BJ Breish said he was “comfortable with the tax increase, because none of us want to keep things status quo: we want our roads fixed, we want our infrastructure fixed, we understand that we have tens of millions of dollars in critical infrastructure repairs needed.”

He then referenced the police vehicle purchases, park paving, and culvert repairs as changes that came out of small group meetings among council and staff, and said he hoped more stability among staff would mean a more smooth process in future years.

“I think the public deserves more transparency in the budget process. I’d like to find a way we can do that. I think we need to start these conversations as early as possible in the year, and we need to have a lot more transparency and understanding of what’s going on in the budget,” he said.

“The public should be able to understand it, and feel comfortable about the decision that we’re making. It’s unfortunate that I feel like we haven’t arrived at that point, and here we are today approving this budget,” Breish said.

Public comments on the budget came from resident Alex Sickler, who asked if any of the streets slated for paving in 2025 were part of the town wide traffic study presented in October. Fuller said they were not, but talks will resume on that traffic study in early 2025, including on what safety upgrades or fixes could be funded in future years, and Mayor Garry Herbert said the town could seek grants to tackle some of those projects.

“In general, our streets haven’t gotten safer, our homeless population has grown, their material conditions haven’t improved, the same commercial properties are vacant as I walk down Main Street,” Sickler said.

“I’m not going to stand up here and ask you guys to wave a magic wand, but I am going to ask all of us, myself included: do better. Dig deeper. There’s no cavalry coming. If we want our best days to be ahead of us — it’s up to us,” he said.

Council unanimously approved the 2025 budget and similarly approved the tax millage ordinance, fee schedule and meeting calendar for the upcoming year, with no meeting scheduled for Jan. 1 due to the new year holiday.

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Jan. 15 at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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