Kiski Township passes 32% real estate tax hike

The Kiski Township supervisors have settled on a 32% property tax hike to balance this year’s budget.

After a brief negotiation, the board opted for a 1.75-mill increase, raising the millage rate from 5.5 mills to 7.25 mills.

The owner of a home assessed at the township’s median value of $21,100 will pay about $37 more in taxes, bringing their tax bill from $116 to $153.

The township last raised taxes in 2023, when it bumped the rate from 4.5 to 5.5 mills.

Supervisor Mary Long initially pushed for a 1-mill increase, while her colleagues, Chuck Rodnicki and Mark Kendall, came down from their 2-mill proposition to strike the deal.

“I feel, as a board, we compromised and came up with an amount that hopefully most residents are comfortable with,” Long said.

Supervisor Chairman Brittany Hilliard was against an increase of any size, believing additional cuts could have been made, including to the police budget — had regionalization worked out.

In November, Kiski Township withdrew from police merger talks with Leechburg and Parks, as well as Apollo and North Apollo, who also walked away shortly after.

If budget amendments proposed Monday go into effect, total expenditures will reach $1.72 million — about $70,000 more than what was first passed. These are merely “corrections,” according to Kendall, that properly account for the additional tax revenue and school resource officer reimbursements from the Apollo-Ridge School District.

Supervisors will vote to make the amendments final at their Jan. 22 meeting.