Unity looks to hold line on taxes next year while continuing expanded paving program

Unity Township looks to hold the line on property taxes next year under a proposed $9.1 million budget while planning to continue an expanded road paving program.

Supervisor Mike O’Barto noted the supervisors this year drew upon about $2 million from the township’s first-ever bond issue to pave a number of roads that hadn’t been resurfaced in as long as four decades.

“We paved more than any other year,” he said.

In 2022, he said, the supervisors likely will spend a similar amount from the $8 million bond issue while adding about $500,000 from the township general fund and state liquid fuels fund to complete the second year of a three-year paving plan.

The supervisors on Wednesday approved a tentative 2022 budget including $8.2 million in the general fund, $829,000 in the liquid fuels fund and $35,000 in a street light fund.

The township is projecting revenue of $5.27 million from all local taxes next year, up from the $5.17 million that was budgeted for this year.

Those taxes include a 2.2-mill real estate tax and a 2-mill fire tax that also is assessed on real estate and helps cover costs for the township’s volunteer fire departments.

O’Barto said development and sales of real estate have been a boon for the township, boosting estimated 2022 revenue from the local real estate transfer tax to $400,000.

“The real estate transfer taxes have gone up in the last three years,” he said. “We have some new housing starts, and we’re very fortunate that there are properties in our (existing) developments that are still available.

“People want to move into Unity Township.”

O’Barto credited the actions of current and past supervisors for making the township appealing to developers while “also keeping the aesthetic beauty of Unity Township in place.”

He said the total assessed valuation of township properties is about $300 million.

“That goes up every year,” he said. “It’s gone up tremendously in the last 20 years. That’s one of the reasons we have not had to raise taxes.”

A boost for recreation

One line item slated to increase in the 2022 budget is recreation expenditures, set at $102,500. That reflects the fact that the township in June rejoined a regional recreation board, along with Latrobe and Greater Latrobe School District, and is contributing an initial share of $100,000 toward combined costs.

For the past several years, Unity had operated a separate recreation program, managed by the Greensburg YMCA. The Y last received a fee of $52,000, but O’Barto said, “We were not really getting a lot of services.”

As part of the regional rec program, he said, “We’re hoping for a lot of good things to happen.”