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For taxpayers, it means no millage-rate increase for township real-estate taxes.
Choose your own adventure: readers who only care about a no tax increase can stop reading here. All others may continue.
The 'realities' of a township budget
There are probably only a few people who actually examine a township budget.
It's not an easy read.
"I wish it were simple to report to the public," said Craig Wheeland, chair of the department of political science at Villanova University who teaches in its master's program in public administration.
The numerous transfers from one fund to another, the generality of line items (i.e., "contractual services") and the fact that the budget is merely "a plan" and not always an accurate prediction of what exactly will happen in the coming year make it difficult for most to digest.
"The vast majority of people want to know... if taxes are going up or not," Radnor Township manager Dave Bashore said Tuesday, the day after the no-increase budget was approved.
The budget is fluid, a board's spending blueprint, an unscientific political document full of goals and objectives based on past trends, future unknowns and hopes, according to Bashore.
Essentially, "The budget is a plan," Wheeland said. "They're allocating revenues to fund operations and service organizations. Six months from now, if revenue is dropping [for example], they may decide to keep funding one thing, but hold back elsewhere."
So will every project that is listed as getting money in 2007 in, say, Radnor's Capital Budget, be funded next year?
The line item to install a new trail connecting Harford Park and Radnor Elementary is listed as receiving $150,000 next year. It's the fourth year the project has been in the budget's plan, Bashore said.
Transferring funds, shifting priorities, flexibility built into a project depending on priorities - these are "perfectly OK," Wheeland said, speaking generally and not about Radnor's 2007 budget.
"Look at it from the point of view of the [township] manager - you have a plan for a year, but it's just that, what you hope to spend, and you'll move money around as a good manager to cover your costs," he said.
So what should people focus on in determining a sound municipal budget?
A balanced budget, estimates for revenue based on standard accounting practices and a municipality's track record of external reviewers, according to Wheeland, who added, "Radnor continues to have standards and recognition met."
Auditors look at accounting and reporting standards, he said, but that doesn't mean people can't disagree on substance of a budget.
"Citizens may disagree over spending priorities that the board has," Wheeland said. "Arguing specific uses - those are the kind of debates one would expect in municipal government."
But some citizens debate the mechanics of the township budget.
Take, for example, Radnor resident Christina Perrone.
Perrone has said that under-budgeting is deceptive to taxpayers, citing under-budgeting in employee health-care insurance in last year's budget (which she spoke of last budget season).
Bashore disputes any inference of deception, calling estimations "the reality of municipal budgeting."
So, how did Radnor move itself from an 8-percent increase in 2006 to zilch for next year?
Perrone credits herself and other citizens, who "demanded accountability and oversight," to push commissioners to ask questions about past "runaway spending."
Most township officials have a different answer: that reducing expenditures and increasing revenue is what they strive to do every year.
Crafting a budget
"Last year, the board was looking for ways to keep the tax increase as low as they could," said Bashore. Moneymaking or saving initiatives were explored. Some succeeded and some did not.
Some of the largest sum discrepancies between the 2006 budgeted numbers and what is estimated to be as of Dec. 31, 2006, include:
Dormitory Safety Inspection Fee: It was the first year implemented, set for $60,000 and will come in at zero dollars. It was a revenue-earning idea but logistically turned out not to be feasible because hiring a new employee to conduct the checks would have negated any savings, Bashore said. Still, last year, the board thought it was feasible enough to explore it, he said. There is nothing budgeted for it for 2007.
Filming Permits: Again, 2006 was the first year this revenue initiative, to charge to film movies in the township, was implemented. It was budgeted at $1,500 and netted nothing. It is again budgeted at $1,500 for 2007.
Sale of Recycled Materials: This is one example where what is estimated to be earned ($50,000) exceeded the budgeted estimation ($30,000). A number of supplemental township vehicles were sold, contributing to the high number.
Unemployment: Unemployment was budgeted for $5,000, but is estimated to cost $50,000. Next year, it is again budgeted at $5,000. The township is largely self-funded for unemployment compensation. Police dispatchers were laid off last December (and two were later hired back under different duties), and in the spring so were some part-time public-works employees.
Contractual services: Under the general-fund expenditures for the administration (each department also has its own line item for contractual services), the 2006-budgeted number was $28,500. The township estimates that by year's end, contractual services will run $125,000. Next year, $30,000 is budgeted. The $125,000 includes legal expertise for items like contract negotiations, tax appeals, and development of the Verizon cable franchise agreement.
(But that $125,000 does not include the approximately $70,000 the township says it has spent so far defending the lawsuit brought against it by commissioner Dave Cannan (Ward 3) and Radnor resident Sara Pilling. Those payments have been moved into the capital budget because the lawsuit is about the future new municipal building.)
"We knew the police contract alone would probably exceed [the contractual services estimation]," Bashore said. But other departments don't use all the funds in their accounts, he said. And there's always the general fund balance to cover other account overages and deficits.
It is not uncommon for municipal budgets to be crafted based on a board goal such as limiting a tax increase to a certain percentage, he said.
Was that the case with the 2006 budget?
Yes, according to Bashore.
'It's history'
Although technically, the actual realities of the 2007 budget don't begin until Jan. 1, for one commissioner, the budget is in some ways "history. It's over, it's done," said Bill Spingler (Ward 3) when asked to talk about the budget Tuesday.
Spingler says the number-one concern from residents he talks to is "living in a great community, and they're satisfied with that."
He said after last year's 8-percent tax increase, "I got four phone calls" about it.
"The overwhelming majority are satisfied with the township," Spingler said. "Would they like no tax increase, yes, that's human nature."
He continued: "The goal is not to raise taxes, but to live within your means the best you can."
As for certain under-budgeting, Spingler said, "We set a goal. We didn't make it. We tried."
