With a number of “modest increases” in budget line items, Borough of Newtown officials are contemplating the first tax hike in years.

The current mill rate is .64 mills, and the proposed 2022-2023 budget would raise that to .74 mills, a 15% increase. Borough Warden Joseph ‘Jay’ Maher noted at a March 8 Board of Burgesses meeting that a house assessed at $400,000 would see its taxes increase from $256 to $296 under the proposal, if approved.

One proposed increase is to the election line item, and another provides raises for positions including clerk and tax collector. The tax bump, if approved, would be the first in five or six years.

Taxes were reduced in the 2019-2020 budget because of a windfall from new borough building permits.

“There was so much extra money that year we gave it back in the form of the mill rate,” said Maher. “But that wasn’t permanent; it can’t be permanent.”

The yearly budgets have also been plugged by using the borough’s fund balance, including $40,000 to be used in the 2022-2023 budget proposal. However, the amount remaining in the fund balance was unknown at the March 8 meeting. Senior Burgess Chris Gardner asked that the amount be found and presented at the next meeting on April 12.

Gardner expressed concerns that the fund balance might be running low.

“We can’t pull money from the fund balance forever,” said Gardner. “If we have that number [the amount currently in the fund balance], it would be very important to know the $40,000 will not deplete it. If we can know that we can afford the $40,000 and not deplete the fund balance, that would be awesome.”

Gardner also suggested going through the budget and looking for ways to make some reductions, such as in legal fees. Gardner said fellow burgess James Gaston — who is a practicing attorney — is “very protective” of the legal fees line item, but noted that the borough had only spent $6,000 of the $15,000 budgeted.

Gardner did admit that “we all knew that we would have to increase the mill rate at some point” since it had been kept “artificially low.”

Gardner suggested possibly taking money out of streets and parks lines, and also noted that some salary line items were showing 10 to 16% raises. While he admitted that the borough employees were “grossly underpaid,” he felt that making up for that in one year was “a big jump.”

Borough Tax Collector/Assessor Jodie Enriquez noted that borough employees make much less than counterparts in other towns like Morris.

“It may be a big jump for one year but we’ve had five to six years with no jumps,” said Enriquez. “We’ve gone too long without raises.”

Gardner said he wanted “something fair for everyone,” but in looking at the budget, “it all has to be on the table.”

The Borough Board of Burgesses is expected to continue budget talks at its April 12 meeting.

Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.