Ligonier Township supervisors approve 25% tax hike

Increases in Ligonier Township’s contribution to the Ligonier Valley Police Department budget, investment in planned bridge projects and inflationary cost increases are among factors prompting a 25% increase in the municipality’s property tax next year.

The increase, from 6 mills to 7.5 mills, will generate an additional $150,000 in revenue to help support a final approved budget of $2.7 million, according to township manager Michael Strelic.

Spread evenly among the 5,200 properties in the township, the 1.5-mill increase will result in an average tax bill increase of $29 per property, Strelic said.

He said the bill will increase by $33 for a property with a market value of $250,000.

“We’re still in a structural deficit, but we’ll be able to get by next year,” he said. “We anticipate expending about $100,000 more than we’ll be bringing in next year.”

That’s down from a $282,000 shortfall envisioned in a previous version of the 2026 budget that did not reflect a tax increase.

“It’s estimated we’ll end this year with $1.68 million in the bank, which is a nice healthy fund balance,” Strelic said.

But, without any further tax increase, the township’s budget forecast for the coming five years projects continued deficit spending in six figures each year, depleting the fund balance to about $345,700 by the end of 2030.

Beginning next year, the township is planning to set aside about $200,00 annually toward replacement of 10 smaller bridges in as many years, Strelic said.

The Ramsey Road bridge over Hannas Run has been closed since September 2024 after an inspection revealed an abutment had been undermined. The bridge abutments would be removed under a township plan to replace the span with a concrete box culvert.

Strelic has said the township will have to tap its reserves for the bridge project if it isn’t approved for funding through a PennDOT multimodal program grant.

The township’s share of funding toward the regional police force budget is increasing from $715,000 to $867,000, Strelic said, while neighboring Ligonier Borough’s contribution is set to rise from $284,000 to $316,700.

He said it’s the first increase in funding for the police in several years.

“They’ve year been running a deficit for a number of years,” he said.

The supervisors decided against increasing the township’s contribution to each of the three volunteer fire departments in the township — Darlington, Waterford and Wilpen.

They had considered increasing each department’s funding from $15,000 to $20,000, but Strelic said they didn’t want to go through with the hike in a year when taxpayers are being asked to pay more to support township spending.

The contribution last increased in 2023, from $10,000 per department.