Hempfield to hold budget work sessions

Hempfield supervisors are hosting two budget work sessions this month in preparation of passing the 2022 budget.

The meetings will take place Thursday and Oct. 13. During the sessions, department heads will present their operating budgets, discuss new hires that may be needed throughout the year, and any new initiatives and projects they hope to complete.

Discussions and decisions made during the sessions will help township leaders build a preliminary 2022 budget.

The township’s department heads will be split between the two nights, with meetings expected to take around two hours, said township Manager Jason Winters.

In addition to meeting with department heads prior to working on the preliminary budget, township leaders are also looking to create uniformity among internal budget documents.

Officials have been working on changing the township’s budget process for months, with discussions first beginning in August.

“It’s time to reimagine and look how we do our budget,” Winters said at the August workshop meeting. “We always brought our preliminary budget to the board in October and that’s really the first time the board sees our preliminary budget. We give it to you and you guys to vote on it right there. We want more input and more direction prior to that.”

At the time, Winters said the goal is to take feedback from the sessions and work it into a preliminary budget. Supervisors could discuss the budget during the Oct. 20 work session, and a vote on the preliminary budget could take place during the Oct. 25 meeting. Any issues with the budget could be discussed in November, with a final vote planned for December.

Last year, supervisors approved a $13.5 million budget that did not raise real estate taxes for the 31st consecutive year, along with a $2.2 million capital budget.

The approval came after months of cutbacks and planning to make up for lost expenses because of the covid-19 pandemic. Revenue streams such as earned income tax, real estate tax, building permits and recreation fees decreased throughout the year because of economic impacts as the virus spread across the region.

To counteract the losses, several departments decreased their budgets for 2021.

Budget meetings this month will begin at 7 p.m. at the township municipal building, 1132 Woodward Drive.