Buffalo Township approves 2025 budget with 4-mill tax hike
Buffalo Township residents will see taxes to the township climb in the new year.
The township recently approved its budget for the 2025 fiscal year, complete with a 4-mill tax hike, which will bring the township’s local rate from 9.5 mills to 13.5.
The new budget and tax resolution were both approved at a special supervisors meeting on Monday, Dec. 23.
“The increase was needed to structurally fund the approved spending plan and reimburse capital reserve funds,” said Buffalo Township manager Rich Hill.
This marks the third consecutive year that Buffalo Township has raised its real estate tax rate. Last year, the township raised the rate from 7.5 mills to 9.5, and the year before that, from 6 to 7.5.
According to Hill, under the new tax rate, a property with the county’s average assessment value of $22,000 will be charged $88 more annually by the township, from $209 to $297.
For comparison, in neighboring Clinton Township, the municipality levies a 4.13 mill real estate tax and a 0.61 mill fire hydrant tax. Buffalo Township does not have a fire hydrant tax.
Hill noted that, even with the tax increase, the township asks for a relatively small share of their residents’ takings compared to both Butler County and the Freeport School District.
“We only get 6% of your total tax bill,” Hill said. “The county gets 13%, and the school gets 81%.
Of the nine school districts in Butler County, the Freeport School District imposes the highest tax rate, at 170.3 mills. This is only for the Butler County side of the school district, however. The district also extends into Armstrong County, whose residents in the district are only charged a rate of 69.02 mills.
Butler County’s tax rate is 27.626 mills.
Buffalo Township’s 2025 budget estimates $3,928,753 in income and $3,764,736 in expenditures for the fiscal year, making a surplus of $164,017.
The surplus can be attributed mainly to the raise in the tax rate, which will bring the township’s real estate tax takings from $760,865.54 in 2024 to an estimated $1,078,000 in 2025. The township estimates that it will take in a total of nearly $3 million in taxes, which includes both real estate and Act 511 taxes.
The largest item on the expenditures budget is “public safety,” which will take $1,415,156. This includes $663,936 in wages for the police department, as well as a contribution of $90,000 to the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department.
Another $539,975 has been earmarked for highways, roads and streets.
