East Penn Township is keeping a keen eye on its finances as the end of 2020 approaches.

Township Treasurer William Donovan told supervisors Tuesday night that the township is down $168,000 in net income compared to the same point in 2019.

“I don’t think we’ll have any problem paying for what we need for the rest of the year, but it’s too soon to tell what is going to happen in April when we have that drought before tax money starts coming in,” Donovan said.

The township is set to begin its budget meetings for 2021 next month.

One of the factors leading to the financial numbers Donovan reported is that the amount of taxes collected is down $35,000 compared to a year ago. In May, supervisors voted to follow the county’s action regarding property tax extensions. Later that month, the county voted to push its base period for property taxes from July 31 to Oct. 31, meaning the penalty period would start in November, three months later than usual.

“We’ve had some unexpected expenses like engineering fees for the social hall and our medical insurance went up,” Donovan said.

Donovan told supervisors he’ll continue to monitor things as expenses come in and update them accordingly.

“It seems like we’re a little more in the hole than I would like, but it won’t shake out fully until our expenses come in for the end of the year,” he said. “If this continues and becomes something to worry about, I’ll ramp up the information.”