Thurmont lowers tax rate to 26.5 cents

BY JAMES RADA, JR.
Thurmont News Editor

THURMONT, Md. – The Thurmont Town Commissioners voted to reduce the municipal property tax rate by one-half cent per $100 of assessed value during their May 23 meeting.

The town’s current tax rate is 27 cents per $100. The new rate will be 26.5 cents. The rate cut reduced the expected budget surplus by approximately $21,053.

The new rate is higher than the constant-yield rate of 25 cents. The constant-yield rate is a state-determined rate that generates the same amount of revenue for the town from one year to the next. The rate will decrease as home assessments increase.

Mayor Martin Burns said not going to the constant-yield rate could have been justified because, “We had approximately an 18-percent increase in employee expenses with pensions.”

The mayor used the current rate to establish a very preliminary budget with a surplus of $45,700 in the operating budget and $56,180 in the capital budget.

Those surpluses didn’t remain at that level, though. Commissioner Glenn Muth asked for $20,000 additional from the capital budget to go to the media commission for a new audio-visual system. Commissioner Ron Terpko asked for $5,000 additional from the operating budget for the recycling commission for community education efforts about the new mandatory recycling program that will be starting.

The commissioners approved both expenditures.

Burns pointed out that the preliminary budget had a surplus despite including a new police salary scale, a new addition to the town staff and a new Thurmont Police Department building at 6-percent interest and a cost of $2 million.

“There is no way it’s going to come in at 6 percent and no way it will cost $2 million, cross your fingers,” Burns said.

With the tax rate cut and the additional $5,000 for the recycling commission, the expected surplus dropped to less than $20,000. Commissioner Bill Blakeslee said he would normally be uncomfortable with such a small surplus, but with budgeted positions still unfilled, he felt there was enough buffer for unexpected issues that might arise.

Terpko expressed concern about future capital budgets. With the number of new building lots in town diminishing, the revenue the town receives from sewer and water connection fees and impact fees could be greatly reduced. Next year’s capital budget gets about $254,000 from those fees.

“That’s money we’re not going to have,” Muth said.

“Exactly,” Terpko replied.

Burns pointed out that the capital budget includes an inflow and infiltration study the town needed, yet still includes a surplus.

“It has to do with the increased revenue we got because this board appropriately increased main connection and impact fees,” Burns said.