SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. – The South Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners approved the proposed 2026 budget Wednesday night at the administration building.<\/p>\n
The $21.9 million spending plan holds the township’s millage at 2.85 but increases the fire tax millage from .47 to .75, for a combined 3.6 total. Township officials said the increase was in part to pay for apparatus needs through the year 2035.<\/p>\n
The fire tax increase will generate $2.88 million in revenue, representing a 112% increase from 2025, while maintaining projected expenses near $1.14 million, which is a 1.6% decrease from this year.<\/p>\n
A property assessed at $350,000 will pay an additional $98 annually with the fire tax rate increase. This results in an annual $1,259.91 property tax bill to South Whitehall. The same property would be responsible for $1,323 a year in Lehigh County property taxes and would owe the Parkland School District $6,265 annually for an $8,847.91 annual property tax bill.<\/p>\n
The budget also contains a 4% sewage rate increase. The Lehigh County Authority is raising their rates 5.5% next year and the township opted to have residents pay most of it. This includes a quarterly sewer base charge increase from $36 to $38, an equivalent dwelling unit or EDU rate hike from $91 to $94.64, and metered rate increase from $4.98 to $5.17 per one thousand gallons.<\/p>\n
LCA is also proposing a 4.55% water rate increase for 2026. The township opted to absorb this rate hike.<\/p>\n
The township’s water fund shows nearly $12.6 million in expenses with $10.8 million in revenues with $1.8 million in 2025 surplus funds being carried forward. The township’s fire fund shows $2.9 million in revenue and 1.1 million in expenses with a nearly $2 million fire truck purchase also budgeted. A total of $985,000 in a cash transfer from the apparatus fund is also allocated in the fire fund.<\/p>\n
South Whitehall’s sewer fund shows revenues and expenses at $4.6 million, while the refuse fund has $5.1 million in revenue with $4.8 million in expenses. The township’s state highway aid fund is balanced at $706,550.64, while the open space fund has nearly $50,000 in revenue with no expenses. The capital fund is balanced also at $4.6 million.<\/p>\n
The proposed budget also includes $96,475 in 2025 grant revenue and $2.2 million in 2026 grant revenue. There is also a ledger for a $1.5 million interfund transfer from the general fund and about $790,000 as the forecasted amount of 2025 surplus cash carried forward of the capital fund.<\/p>\n
The township is also liable for debt manifested in a general obligation bond instituted Nov. 23, 2021, for $10.35 million. This debt was utilized mostly for the township building’s renovation, sidewalk along the building and campus’ frontage, and the Wehr’s Dam rehabilitation through the end of 2041. The long-term debt will impact South Whitehall’s fiscal planning for several years. South Whitehall will make $1.1 million in debt payments next year.<\/p>\n
A newly created Land Acquisition Fund will garner the township an additional $900,000, courtesy of a .1% earned income tax increase. This new fund was included in the 2026 budget after voter referendum general election approval Nov. 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. – The South Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners approved the proposed 2026 budget Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,433,28,29749,17683],"class_list":["post-52884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-lehigh-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-south-whitehall","tag-south-whitehall-township-board-of-commissioners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}