The Lower Towamensing Township supervisors passed the 2024 budget Tuesday night with no tax increase, leaving the rate at 2.5 mills.

Last year, the supervisors passed a .9-mill tax increase to raise money for employee benefits and equipment purchases.

The total proposed budget for 2024 is $926,140. The largest expense for the township is road repairs and other public works needs, as well as employee costs for salaries and benefits. The total cost for these is expected to be $538,993.

According to the budget, general expenses for office supplies, auditing, heating, the web site, and more total $121,448. Public safety costs for the fire department’s needs, zoning salary and services, and various other costs equal $105,888.

The remaining coasts for sewer system engineering and related costs equal $75,000. Recreations costs for the parks and related expenses equal $56,013. Insurance costs equal $28,797.

Three funds show a net income. The Fire Fund has a net income of $175 with a budget of $56,100. The Fire Hydrant Fund has a net income of $1,301 and a budget of $2,375. And the Streetlight Fund has an income of $322 and a budget of $9,772.

The Garbage Fund is expected to have a deficit, but Brent Green, the chairman of the supervisors, also said there will not be any increases in the garbage rate.

According to the budget, the supervisors anticipate the income from solid waste (garbage) collection to be $309.065, but the expenses to the Garbage Fund are calculated to be $360,661. This would result in a deficit of $51,596.

Green said at the supervisors’ meeting in November that “a large part of that expenditure in deficit is because of our admin. Costs that we have been assigning but we haven’t really been using, as well as some of the recycling programs that we’ve been talking about doing that are now included in there.”