N. Annville Twp. supervisors amend real estate tax rate, revise 2026 budget

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

North Annville Township supervisors unanimously voted Monday to lower the township’s first-ever real estate tax of 1 mill to 0.6 of a mill.  

The median assessed value of a home in North Annville Township in 2024 was approximately $148,840, meaning the average homeowner will pay $89.30 in real estate taxes in 2026. Township supervisor Adam Wolfe said there are 987 taxable properties in the municipality.

Supervisors had also approved a 1-mill fire service tax as part of their 2026 budget for the purchase of fire apparatus totaling $1.2 million for North Annville Fire Department during their regularly scheduled meeting on Dec. 8. But they held a special meeting Monday to lower the millage rate once they learned they had been awarded a $350,000 Local Share Assessment state grant through the Department of Community and Economic Development that will provide funds toward its committed expenditure of $785,000. 

The grant information was provided one week after the budget had been approved in early December.

The millage rate is expected to generate $118,875 in new revenue, while another $112,625 will be transferred from the general fund to an existing Jan. 1 balance of $220,000 in the fire service fund to fulfill the township’s $785,000 financial commitment to the project. The fire company is paying the balance of the bill to obtain the new fire engine. 

Wolfe noted in information provided to LebTown that a farm property with a $620,600 clean and green assessed value containing three chicken houses would pay $372.36 at the new millage rate. 

The revised vote by supervisors comes with several contingencies. The tax’s lifespan was reduced from three years to two, meaning it is slated to be retired on Dec. 31, 2027, and the imposed tax is exclusively for the purchase of a new fire engine.

Wolfe noted in figures shared with LebTown that the average residential assessed value will save nearly $268 via the lower rate and elimination of one of the three years the tax will be collected. Additionally, that farmer would save $1,117 with a lower rate and one-year reduction. 

Another statistic shows that farms in the Clean and Green program reduce the taxable assessed value of properties in North Annville Township by over $69.5 million.

Prior to the vote, the meeting grew contentious at times between property owners and fire company officials during nearly one hour of discussion and debate. Many of the same topics that were discussed at the Dec. 8 meeting came to the forefront again. 

One resident asked supervisors to levy an income tax but the board reiterated that they are prohibited by law from imposing that tax on township residents. During discussion, Mark Sallada, assistant fire chief for North Annville Township, noted that other townships have multiple taxes to pay with their municipalities. (This is the first and only tax created by North Annville Township officials.)

Board chairman Clyde Meyer, who told LebTown after the meeting that he isn’t pleased to pay the new tax as a farmer, noted during discussion that the township has never imposed a tax on its residents over the past 45 years. 

Other residents asked why the township hasn’t sold fire company property, particularly one of its buildings, since the two companies merged. Supervisor Aaron Miller responded that the township doesn’t own the buildings and can’t force the fire company to sell its assets. 

Sallada said volunteers from the one company would immediately quit if its former property were to be sold so soon after a merger, which became official on Jan. 1, 2025. Volunteer firefighter Jim Hoffman said township residents should give plenty of consideration and have discussions about what it means to sell its assets, adding once they are gone they are gone forever.

A farmer at the meeting responded to Hoffman noting that if farmers have to sell their land to pay their taxes, then the land, like the fire company’s building, is gone forever.

Meyer said the township has state Rep. Russ Diamond and state Sen. Chris Gebhard to thank for helping to secure the $350,000 grant, noting at one point the township had applied for a grant totaling $475,000. The township learned about the grant so late in the year because of the budget impasse, which lasted for nearly five months. 

A member of the fire company who said she’s prepared various grants cautioned supervisors not to lower the millage rate since the grant was for a different piece of equipment. Miller assured her the grant had been secured and that the township would file a change order for the engine versus the originally intended purpose as written on the grant application.

Other residents enquired about fixing existing equipment, which would save money and not require the creation of a fire tax to pay for the engine. Sallada matter-of-factly stated he would not risk his life and enter a burning building with antiquated equipment, adding he would quit as a volunteer firefighter first. 

Miller noted during the meeting, and later provided a worksheet that he emphasized he had compiled, showing that the fire company’s revised replacement plan was saving 26.3% in reduced equipment costs. 

“My hat is off to the fire company for working to reduce costs,” Miller told LebTown after the meeting. “There are fire companies that have merged that have not reduced their costs at all.”

The new tax will be collected by the Lebanon County Treasurer’s Office at a total of $1.53 per bill, according to information provided to LebTown by Wolfe.

The resolution stated that the Second-Class Township Code permits the municipality to levy a special tax on real property within the township of up to 3 mills for the “purchase of fire apparatus, the housing of the apparatus, the contracting of fire services and the like and to assess the tax by an equal assessment upon all benefitted properties.”  

Revised township 2026 budget

In other business related to the tax millage rate revision, supervisors unanimously voted to pass a revised 2026 budget. 

The new budget anticipates a beginning balance of $1.83 million, receipts totaling $1.32 million and disbursements of $1.58 million, leaving an expected ending balance of nearly $1.8 million on Dec. 31, 2026.

North Annville Township supervisors meet the second Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. in the social hall of the former Union Water Works Fire Company, 2875 Water Works Way, Annville. They will hold a reorganizational meeting on Monday, Jan. 5, at 6:30 p.m. to set officer positions for its various boards at that time. The next regularly scheduled meeting is at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 12.