Borough Voters Approve A Budget

By Jan Howard

Borough of Newtown residents on May 18 voted 11 to 9 to approve a 2004-05 budget of $227,143.

There are 1,215 registered voters in the borough.

The budget contains an increase of $42,113, or 22.8 percent, over the current year’s budget of $185,030.

The tax rate would be 1 mill, an increase of 0.32 from 0.68 for the current year’s budget.

Warden Joan Crick said the 0.68 mill rate is “the lowest I’ve ever seen. We put the mill rate down this year, and it was too thin. We are better off at 1 mill to cover the needs of the Borough.” She said the usual tax rate for the past five years has been from 1 to 1.03 mills.

“It’s a minimal increase,” she said. “It will get us back to a better status.”

She said $12,000 was added for planned improvements to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument traffic island and $5,500 for costs related to the 2005 election. An increase of $11,000, from $10,000 to $21,000, was included for new sections of sidewalks and ongoing sidewalk repairs as part of the streetscape plan adopted by the borough.