Taxes, Fees, and You

One important role that I have as a commissioner is to oversee that the township provides excellent services for you, while keeping the costs in check. Some costs are not negotiable (due to contracts for police, public works, etc., professional services, and long-term arrangements), and some costs you — the citizen — have some control over!

There are several ways to reduce township costs, and ways to reduce your personal costs, as shown below.

The tax-payer is responsible for the following items:

• Real-Estate Tax: You have no control over this. It is currently at 3.370 mills, identical to what it was in 2007 and hasn't changed since. This is thanks to our outstanding, cost-conscious staff and the diligence and persistence by your Board of Commissioners.
• Refuse Service Fee: This is the cost of collecting your trash and recyclables. Taxpayers share this cost in man-hours, equipment, and tipping fees. (By every comparison I have seen, the township runs this considerably more economically than outsourcing to a private business would be.) What can you do to help reduce the costs to the township?
  • Reduce your trash stream: Aspire to reduce your trash stream to zero. If it can be recycled, please don't be lazy — recycle everything you can! The trash stream is considerably more expensive to dispose of than recyclables, for which we get paid a small amount, which almost offsets the cost.
  • Reduce your recycle stream: Once you've reduced your trash stream as much as you can, then aim to reduce your recycle stream to zero. RecycleBank is costing the township real money, so please, please sign up to accumulate rewards today. In a perfect "green" world we would have no trash and no recyclables. In our real world, we should try to reduce our waste (buy products with minimal or no packaging, bring your own bag to the supermarket, etc.), reuse, and, finally, recycle.
• Sanitary Sewer Rental: Did you know that your sewer rental fee is based exclusively on a formula based on your water bill? Reduce your water bill (and save some money) and you will also reduce your sewer rental fee (for those who use the sewers). In other words, if you reduced your water bill to zero, your sewer-rental fee would also reduce to zero. The more water you waste (watering lawn from the tap rather than using a rain barrel, for example), the higher your sewer-rental fee.
• 1% Earned Income Tax: Information here
• Business and Mercantile Taxes: Information here

Pay Early!

• Pay your taxes in the discount period and save yourself some money.

Three More Ways to Reduce Township Costs

• Volunteer in the library or for parks and recreation activities. Any needed man- and woman-hours that can be done by volunteers saves the township money.
• Disconnect sump pumps from the sanitary sewer system.
• Compost your yard waste rather than putting it into the trash stream.

If you have other suggestions, please Let me know!