The “not ready for approval” 2021 Loyalsock Township budget includes no tax increase again this year, keeping the real estate tax rate at 0.5 mills, according to Bill Burdett, township manager.

This half-mill rate would mean that for a property assessed at $100,000, a property owner would pay $500 in taxes.

Burdett described this first draft of the budget to be the “best educated guesses” the township could put together in terms of expenditures and revenues.

“We are really just throwing a dart,” he said.

With that said, the projected expenditures for the 2021 budget at this time is $3,495,152 with revenues close to that at $3,000,255.

This budget season will be difficult for a multitude of townships, and Loyalsock is no different according to Burdett.

He said that this budget draft shows different efforts to save money including: completely switching to natural gas and energy efficiency products, waiting a year for township vehicle replacements, not using township funds for paving and seal coat projects and lessening the amount of funds transferred to and from different accounts.

In past budgets, the township has moved funds from their general fund budget to their capital reserve solely for MS4 projects.

In 2020, the township transferred $200,000 over to the capital reserve, for 2021, they expect to only transfer half of that amount.

In addition, the township also has a Fire Company Capital fund where they transfer money from the general fund to this account for fire company needs. If the fire company does not have use for these saved funds, they still belong to the township.

In the 2021 budget, they only transferred $25,000 into the account whereas in 2020, they transferred $50,000.

Burdett has also projected a lot of losses that are “out of the township’s control,” including income taxes, zoning and permits.

In the 2020 budget, the township earned around $1.4 million in earned income taxes while the township is only projecting to earn $1.1 million in 2021.

The township recreation committee does have some projects in store, including replacing the township pool fence and changing light bulbs in the park to LED bulbs for cost and energy saving, which is included in the projected expenditures.