Politics & Government

Middletown Supervisors Approve Reduced EIT

The board approved an amended 2014 budget with an earned income tax reduced to .5 percent.

The Middletown Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Thursday night to amend the 2014 budget, reducing the recently enacted one-percent earned income tax to .5 percent, according to the Bucks County Courier Times.

According to the report, the solution to the $4 million budget gap will also include keeping the property taxes at the 2013 rate, instead of the proposed two-mill reduction, and transferring $2 million from the investment fund.

The board has been under fire from vocal residents since the EIT was first proposed in November. Taxpayers have filled meeting rooms for the past six weeks with strong opposition to what has been called the largest tax increase in the township's history.

Several opponents that urge the township to completely eliminate the EIT and close the deficit through spending cuts have formed the Middletown Taxpayers United, a nonpartisan group that has officially become a political action committee. 

The Middletown Board of Supervisors has previously resisted calls to use the township's $40 million investment fund to completely cover the deficit, with members saying it could create a slippery slope of using the money to pay municipal expenses. That attitude shifted a bit Thursday night with the approval of the $1 million transfer. 

The township has until Feb. 14 before it is unable to make any further amendments to the budget.


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