Mayor's Message & 2024 Budget Address - 10/4/2023

Mayor's Message & 2024 Budget Address - October 4, 2023 Council Meeting

As this year winds down and the 2024 public-facing budget season begins, I’d like to highlight some of this year’s projects:

1. Working with council, we acquired new open space at Blanchard Road in Drexel Hill and also near the Bond Shopping Center in Upper Darby
2. We completed a streetscape and stormwater improvement project at the Five Points intersection at the base of the township building and have almost finished the streetscape and stormwater improvement project on Market Street between Powell and Glencoe, creating a sidewalk and installing ADA ramps where none had been before
3. The 150-foot-footspan recreational bridge across Darby Creek was installed this year, linking Creek Road near the Swedish Cabin to the recreational trail in Gillespie Park.  On tonight’s agenda is a resolution I am asking council to support for a county grant to help fund a second bridge on the trail to connect Gillespie Park with the Addingham neighborhood
4. Another recreational trail is nearing completion: from Chapman Park along the former Cardington-Newtown train tracks and along Ruskin Lane to Long Lane.  

These projects have been funded through various sources and partnerships: our CDBG program, the capital improvement budget, County Council, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Department of Community and Economic Development, our partners in the Pennsylvania state house, among others.

Another project that isn’t above-ground and visible but very, very important to the future of Upper Darby is the transition from the long-outdated AS400 system which requires multiple contractors to pull the necessary data to OpenGov, a cloud-based, 21st Century program.  In January, we transitioned our accounting systems to OpenGov. This transition, which will include other departments, is a huge step forward in modernizing our township administration and is exactly the kind of reform and reinvestment that I committed to as Mayor. Which brings us to the 2024 proposed Budget.

This proposed budget is the product of many, many hours of hard work by the Finance team and department heads. In addition to our constant internal review and a methodical process creating the budget proposal, the Administration met with members of council for nearly 9 hours over three evenings last week to clarify the proposed budget and answer questions. 

I was on Council for six years before becoming Mayor and I often voted against the budget, concerned that the administration was kicking the can on post-employment and pension costs, contractual obligations that we owed our deserving employees and that are growing and threaten our long-term finances.  In order to get a handle on the scope of our outlook, I switched the focus of the Department of Community & Economic Development’s (the DCED’s) STAMP program to a 5-Year Financial Management Plan.  Two weeks ago, we held a Town Hall on that plan presented by PFM and last year, we held a Town Hall on Key Financial Background and Concerns by the Kapoor Company.  Both reports are available on our website.  We are very grateful for our partnership with the DCED and PFM, both reputable organizations which have worked both with my administration and the previous one. 

To date, we have incorporated changes as to how we collect and generate revenue: we contracted with E-Collect to streamline our business privilege tax system, we have a vacant property registration, and we're working on updating our LERTA ordinance to encourage development. Other suggestions as you would see in the reports include an earned income tax and usage-based sewer fees.  Working with council, we instituted a realty transfer tax (we may have been the last municipality in the state to do so), We also work with council to make periodic adjustments to our fees to reflect increases that we incur and to cover administrative costs.  

In the short term, my administration will work with Council on a series of ordinances related to revenue and fees charged to cover costs related to utility and fuel prices and contractual salary and benefit obligations when providing certain services.

Specifically, the proposed 2024 budget incorporates revenue from fee increases for the following services:

• An updated Licenses & Inspections Fee Ordinance will bring these fees in line with neighboring municipalities and more accurately reflect the costs incurred by the Township when providing services for specific permits and inspections. 
• An increase of the Business License fee to $50 which is more consistent with surrounding municipalities and which would require Council action on a proposed ordinance. 
• Cost recovery for the rental of Upper Darby picnic groves, pavilions, and recreational facilities to ensure users are covering staffing expenses related to these rentals. This would also require Council action on the proposed ordinance. 
• After piloting an electric vehicle charging program in Municipal Parking Lot One, we will now send to Council an ordinance to begin charging a fee for usage of those charging stations. 

All of these measures are already factored into the 2024 Proposed Budget. Council action is required to implement these ordinances which will increase revenue to cover  township costs..

Once we receive the property tax assessment from the county - which is usually early November - we will be able to provide more specific updates and exact adjustments to the tax rates. At this time, based on the 2023 assessed value, we are estimating an increase of .72 mills, which represents $72 per year or $6 per month for each $100,000 of assessed value of a property. More than half of that amount, $46, will go to debt service (known as the sinking fund). The sinking fund repays bonds that the township has historically used to fund routine capital improvement expenditures.   

Also, trash and sewer fees will be adjusted to reflect rising costs for tipping fees from the county solid waste authority, from our handler and from the three sewer authorities. Like fees for inspections and permits, costs help cover the real costs of these necessary services. The 2024 proposed budget includes an increase of $15 per year for trash and recycling collection and an increase of $15 per year for the sewer fee. In 2021, we started a weekly yard waste collection program to help lower disposal costs.  

On Wednesday, October 18, Diane Scutti, our Acting Finance Director, will present the preliminary 2024 budget to Council and our taxpayers. I would like to thank Diane, Donna Stillwell of Brinker Simpson, Alison Dobbins, Acting CAO, the Department Heads and the entire Finance Department team for their hard work on the 2024 proposed budget. Please join us on October 18th. Thank you.

-Mayor Barbarann Keffer