Politics & Government

Oakland Residents Faced with Estimated $173 Tax Increase

The Oakland Municipal Budget was adopted on Wednesday and the average assessed home is expected to receive a $18.21 increase in municipal taxes.

The Oakland Borough Council adopted the amended municipal budget on Wednesday evening. The municipal budget will increase the tax of every averaged assessed home by $18.21 over the next year.

There is a 0.5 percent increase on the combined main levy and library levy, which comes well below the state mandate of no more than 2 percent.

“The increase is very low. It’s lower than the rate of inflation.” said Borough Administrator Richard Kunze. “We’ve done a very good job by controlling costs by taking a long range view.”

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Total revenues generated by the adopted 2013 budget are anticipated to be $17,892, 988. Of that total, $13,913,302 will be raised by taxation for municipal and library purposes. Appropriations in the adopted 2013 budget total out at $17,892,998.

 “It terms of looking at both how we can economize and also how handle the finances themselves, they both contribute to how we can bring fourth a sustainable level of taxation year after year,” said Kunze.

Find out what's happening in Oaklandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Unofficial numbers released by the Borough Council anticipate a $115 increase and a $40 county increase for the average assessed home in Oakland. When tallied with the $18.21 increase of municipal taxes, the averaged assessed home can expect an increase of roughly $173 this year.

“For every $10,000 in taxes paid about 67 percent of that goes to school taxes alone,” said Councilman Timothy Jensen. “When we talk about the municipal share we are talking about 26 percent and the county share is just over 10 percent. The major impact on every home we are taxing is the school system.”


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