LANCASTER TWP — More than a dozen residents gathered Tuesday evening, where they raised questions about the proposed 2023 budget at the township supervisors’ second budget hearing.

Questions and comments came from several residents throughout the meeting, who would shout their messages aloud from the audience.

“This is a public comment period, not a conversation period,” Supervisor Greg Kessler, board chairman, told two residents at Tuesday’s meeting.

A handful of residents would later approach the podium in a more formal manner to ask questions.

“I’m curious,” resident Sandi Cox said from the podium. “What if we have issues with your budget? ... When do we get to make comments as residents saying that we have concerns with items?

“I always thought a ‘workshop’ meant input from the residents, telling you our thoughts and that. ... It’s more like you three came up with a budget, and we have no opportunity to have our say, before you’re already saying, ‘We want this budget,’” Cox said.

“I’m just asking. I’m not trying to be argumentative. It seems like that, but I’m truly not,” she said.

C. Michael Foote, township manager, said the budget is in its early stages still and faces changes before reaching a more formal, proposal stage at a later meeting.

Tuesday’s meeting was the last of two budget hearings in Lancaster Township. The proposed budget was then posted for residents to further review Wednesday, Foote said Thursday.

The budget will come to a vote for approval at the supervisors’ Dec. 12 meeting, which was rescheduled from Dec. 19. The meeting follows a review period, in which residents may continue to offer their opinions on the budget, Foote said.

The proposed 2023 budget features $1,571,283 in total expenditures, down from $1,725,822 in expenditures in the 2022 budget.

Total revenue in the proposed 2023 budget comes to $1,607,629, which includes no tax increase.

Whereas the 2022 budget projected a deficit of $211,472, the 2023 proposed budget projects a surplus of $36,346. Foote was only involved in the creation of the latter. The 2022 budget was prepared by the township’s interim management.

“There was a wish list of items included in that budget, but we didn’t want to deficit spend. We chose to live within our means,” Foote said Thursday.

Foote projects a small surplus of about $20,000 to be left at the end of 2022.

An increase in legal fees were among the questions that residents raised Tuesday.

Cox asked why legal fees from the budget had spiked from $15,000 in 2018 to $75,000 in 2021. She acknowledged a legal battle over Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law between the township and the Butler Eagle from that period, which cost the township a $6,500 settlement, plus an estimated $5,000 to $10,000 in procedural expenses, she estimates.

She wanted to know why the amount budgeted toward legal fees had been then adjusted to $65,000 in the 2023 budget. She said it should have returned to a lower number.

She said her investigations into neighboring townships budgets showed that the $65,000 was high. The budget for one nearby municipality, Jackson Township, was $20,000 for legal fees, she said.

Foote said the amounts budgeted to legal and zoning fees in the proposed budget are reflective of the township’s need to bring in outside expertise.

“We’re just looking to best serve the community. That’s what we look for, expertise in those areas,” Foote said Thursday.

He also said the township hired a labor attorney, a job that was previously done by the solicitor.

“I think from an operational standpoint, we, as staff, have a bit more institutional knowledge of what’s going on, because we operate here every day, using that budget every day, so we have a bit more familiarity,” Foote said after the meeting.