Evesham Township residents won’t have to worry about paying more in municipal taxes this year.
Evesham Township Council unanimously adopted its 2019 municipal budget at its meeting last Tuesday. The budget includes no change in municipal taxes for residents. The adopted budget includes a very slight municipal tax rate decrease of 0.0036 per $100 of assessed value. Coupled with an increase in the average assessed home from $270,500 to $272,700, it will result in no change on the municipal tax bill.
Director of finance Tom Shanahan said there were no major changes made to the budget from when it was introduced at council’s last meeting in June. This year’s municipal budget will total approximately $39.6 million, an increase of approximately $1.5 million from 2018’s $38.1 million.
During the initial presentation on the budget in June, Shanahan highlighted a number of areas in the budget. A couple areas where the budget increased the most were in police salary and wages as the township must budget for a full year of salaries for its school resource officers. The township’s contribution into the police and fire pension systems also increased a little less than $300,000 this year. Shanahan also mentioned the township is making a huge investment in its road program this year.
There were no comments from residents during the budget’s public hearing, but all five members of council has positive things to say about the budget prior to the vote.
“We worked very hard to present a very good budget,” Mayor Jaclyn Veasy said. “We’re happy with the ability to keep a stable tax rate for the township. We worked really hard from the time that we started looking at the budget … to look at how to make us more efficient.”
“Serving as a council member for my first time, the fact that we were able to increase services without increasing the tax rate has really been substantial,” Deputy Mayor Heather Cooper added.
Council also had plenty of positive things to say about Shanahan as well as township manager Michael Barth. Both of them received plaques as last Tuesday was the final meeting for both of them prior to retirement. Numerous department heads also took time to speak about both of them at the end of the meeting.
Barth has served Evesham in a variety of roles. In 1989, Barth joined the Evesham Police Department in the patrol bureau. Barth held a number of positions with the police department, eventually moving up to become acting chief of police in 2009. Barth was named chief of police in 2010, a position he held until his retirement in 2013.
After retiring as chief, Barth returned to the police department as its fiscal analyst. In February of 2018, Barth was appointed as the township manager.
“I will miss you,” Councilman Robert DiEnna said. “We developed not only a professional relationship, but a personal relationship that is just off the charts. I attribute that personal relationship to our ability to discuss things that are technical, but it makes it more pleasurable.”
Shanahan has worked at Evesham Township since 2003, starting as the deputy treasurer. He took over as director of finance in 2008.
Prior to working in Evesham, Shanahan served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army for six years from 1985 to 1991. From 1994 to 1998, Shanahan was deputy township administrator in Egg Harbor Township and later worked with the local government budget review for the state prior to coming to Evesham.
“For a person who likes numbers myself, when I’m in a room with you, you are a savant. I’m in awe of what I learned,” Councilman Ken D’Andrea said about Shanahan. “You’ve taught me a lot about municipal government, the challenges of trying to adopt or adapt corporate business practices in a municipal world.”
