Freeport starts the year with 15% property tax hike, first in more than a decade

Freeport is starting 2023 with a 15% hike in real estate taxes.

The owner of a home assessed at $40,000 will pay $80 more in borough real estate taxes, from $520 in 2022 to $600 in 2023, borough officials said.

“Council agreed to raise taxes because revenue has been flat or falling over the last several years while expenses increased, such as wages and other expenses exacerbated by inflation,” council President Clint Warnick said.

The millage rate has increased from 13 mills to 15 mills.

Given that 2023’s general budget of $723,668 is 15% lower than 2022’s budget of $855,651, a tax increase might have seemed unlikely.

But 2022’s revenue figure was inflated because it included about $175,000 over a two-year period from the federal American Rescue Plan Fund, covid-19 pandemic recovery money, borough officials said.

The board voted unanimously for the tax hike at a special meeting Dec. 30.

Warnick said council should have raised taxes three years ago. But turnover in police and public works employees created vacancies and saved the borough money, he said.

“The money that was saved during those years put the borough at risk for additional unforeseen costs,” he said.

“You have to have sewage plant operators, police and other employees, or you risk incurring other costs like fines from the DEP and problems from not having police.”

The borough and police are close to full staff now, Warnick said.

The 2023 borough police budget of $215,000 decreased from 2019’s $257,000 with similar coverage because of the borough’s merger with Gilpin’s police department last year, Warnick said. However, last year’s police budget, at $202,770, was lower than this year’s allotment.

Given police turnover in recent years, Warnick said the comparison of 2023 to 2019 is the most relevant because the borough wanted to reach that level of coverage. It has, and the borough is paying less for it, he said.

“We can fill vacancies much easier,” Warnick said. “You don’t have the lapse in coverage you would have seen before.”