Payout to Retiring Officer Prompts Narberth Tax Increase

A one-time $120,000 payment to a retiring Narberth policeman will mean an extra $44 on the average 2012 municipal tax bill, after the included no tax increase.

Borough Manager Bill Martin said until Lt. Art Pavoni, who officially departs the borough's force with the end of 2011, decided how to take his initial payout from early retirement, officials had not been able to factor it into the budget. That process took place after the preliminary budget was drafted; Borough Council approved the final budget at its meeting Wednesday night.

The Pavoni payment bumps 2012 expenses up to about $4.5 million, and the tax rate increases from 8.775 mills to 9.067 mills. A mill equals a dollar of tax per $1,000 of home value.

With the tax increase, the owner of a home assessed at $150,000—about average in Narberth—will pay $1,360 in municipal taxes in 2012, after paying $1,316 in 2011 and $1,250 in 2010.

Martin said Pavoni's subsequent pension payments will not affect the budget in this manner. He also said the borough got $200,000 in rent from the four tenants of the former Narberth School property, $20,000 more than expected, and that another $200,000 should come in in 2012.

The year 2011 saw the borough pay about $70,000 for an emergency repair to the Narberth Avenue bridge, which was after a PennDOT inspection found decay. Several were also undertaken; work on Wynnewood Avenue pipes is taking longer than expected, Martin said, and is now expected to finish in the year's first two months, after which the road will be repaved.

"As small as we are, we had to face a couple things we weren't necessarily anticipating," Martin said.