Evesham residents with a home assessed at the average value of $270,500 can expect to see an annual decrease of $6.38 in municipal taxes.
Evesham residents can expect to see a slight decrease in their municipal tax bill with the township’s 2018 municipal budget.
Evesham Township Council unanimously adopted this year’s $37.6 million budget at last week’s council meeting, which includes a decrease in the municipal tax rate from 43 cents per every $100 of assessed property value to 42.7 cents per every $100 of assessed property value.
Those residents with a home assessed at the average value of $270,500 can expect to see an annual decrease of $6.38 in municipal taxes.
Those figures remain unchanged from when council introduced the budget in May.
According to township officials, the municipal budget and township services provided through that budget account for about 15 percent of a resident’s overall annual property tax bill.
Officials say the remaining 85 percent of a resident’s overall annual property tax bill is split between the other taxing entities in town, including about 41 percent of local property taxes going to Evesham Township School District, about 24 percent going to the Lenape Regional High School District, about 14 percent going to Burlington County, about 5 percent going to the Evesham Fire District and about 1 percent going to support open space funding.
According to the township, for every one cent the municipality raises in municipal taxes, the township receives $525,000.
Looking to the future, officials have also noted that should the municipality have chosen to do so, state law would have allowed the township to raise an additional $3.2 million in tax revenue under the state’s tax levy cap law.
While that law limits municipalities to an annual tax levy increase of 2 percent or less, municipalities that don’t raise the full 2 percent in a given year can “bank” the remaining difference for three years to add to future tax increases.
When introducing this year’s budget in May, officials also praised the level of efficiency through which the township uses taxpayer dollars and overall revenues, versus other entities.
According to Evesham officials, the municipality spends about $801 to serve each resident in town.
However, officials say Burlington County spends an average of $964 to provide services to residents, Camden County spends an average of $1,268 to provide residents with services and the state spends an average of $1,559 to provide residents with services.
Officials have also cited “quality of life surveys” sent to newer residents who lived in town for a year to gauge their satisfaction with Evesham’s services versus the services from where they previously lived.
According to township officials, 97 percent of residents responded “excellent” or “good” when asked to describe the quality of life in Evesham, 88 percent of residents responded “excellent” or “good” when asked to rate the quality of services in Evesham Township, and 97 percent of residents responded “excellent” or “good” when asked to give their impression of township employees and overall customer service.
