Wednesday
September 18, 2024 
The Lower Makefield Township Board of Supervisors got into a discussion about an earned income tax near the end of its 3.5-hour Feb. 15 meeting.
The tone of the conversation suggested that an EIT is not being seriously considered at this time, but also suggested that it is not being completely ruled out for the future.
Supervisor James McCartney started the earned income tax talk by requesting that township Manager David Kratzer find out from Keystone Collections Group — the firm that collects the EIT for Bucks County municipalities and school districts — how much Lower Makefield residents are paying in EIT to other municipalities where they work.
One of the rationales used by governmental entities that levy an earned income tax, in addition to just needing more revenue, is that if so many residents are paying the tax anyway to municipalities where they work, than that revenue might as well come back home.
Most Bucks County municipalities already have an EIT, including Lower Makefield’s neighbor Falls Township, which enacted it effective at the start of this year. While the Lower Makefield supervisors reached a consensus to have Kratzer get the data requested by McCartney, it didn’t come before his request prompted a wider discussion about an EIT.
“I don’t support an EIT, and I don’t see the need for research,” said Supervisor John Lewis, repeating a stance he has often voiced.
Board member Suzanne Blundi was not as adamant.
“In the last few years, most of the townships in Bucks County have adopted an EIT,” she said. “Some people have said to me they don’t like the situation of living in Lower Makefield but paying the tax to another town. Finding this nugget of data may decide whether we take the next step or not.”
McCartney agreed that if the amount of EIT being paid by Lower Makefield residents to other towns is not significant, that could very well end his interest in pursuing the matter further. Lewis said that research done by former township Manager Kurt Ferguson showed that the amount McCartney is interested in used to be about $200,000.
“Just gathering raw data doesn’t mean we’re going down the path of something,” McCartney said of his request.
But Supervisor Daniel Grenier said he would prefer that any discussion of an EIT be more comprehensive and within the framework of a specific meeting agenda item, not at the end of a meeting under “other business.”
“We need to be careful about entering into a policy discussion,” Grenier said. “I don’t like getting data piecemeal. I like to see it in context so that we’re not getting little bits of data and using them incorrectly.”
Supervisors Chairman Fredric Weiss said “No one is advocating or pushing for an EIT.” However, he added that although Lower Makefield has many millions of dollars from the sale of its sewer system, its share of the American Rescue Plan Act and unused funds from a previous bond issue, the township has a structural budget deficit. That means expenses exceed revenue from steady, regular sources like the property and real estate transfer tax and other reoccurring taxes and fees.
Weiss suggested that perhaps a special meeting could be held fairly soon to discuss a wide variety of possible ways to address the structural deficit, including an EIT.
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