Lawrence Township Levies Overview
This November, your Lawrence Township Trustees are asking for your support on five levies to continue to fund our Police, Fire, and Road Departments. Four levies are renewals and not new taxes. One road levy will be listed as new because the previous levy was allowed to expire. The police levy will be the exact same rate but as a replacement to capture the new tax values.
For a household with a tax valuation of $100,000, the road levy will cost $50.75 per year. The police levy will cost $43.75 per year. Combined, they will cost less than a Netflix subscription.
Believe me, as trustees and residents, we understand that none of you want to pay more in taxes. We would not be asking to continue these levies if we didn’t feel it was needed and in the best interest of our residents. I would implore you to look at this as a small yearly investment in your community rather than just more taxes.
We can all understand the reality of rising costs in our own lives, and the township is not immune to this either. Every year, wages in all departments go up along with increases in things like gear, vehicles, fuel, gravel, asphalt, drainage pipe, etc. By keeping the millage the same and pursuing the new tax values, helps offset some, though not all, of the inflationary costs with very minimal additional cost to residents.
We are the sole entity responsible for all township roads, including allotments. Our roads and drainage systems are aging and require more maintenance each year. These projects are labor-intensive and extremely expensive. However, if we do not invest in maintenance and repairs, the roads will continue to deteriorate, and the cost will only rise. This will also lead to drainage issues, flooding, icy roads, etc.
Our township, which provides all your direct local Police, Fire, EMS, Road, Zoning, and other services, only accounts for 21.99% of your property tax money. I hope you will agree the service provided by our departments is an exceptional value for a relatively small cost.
Supporting these levies is a direct investment in your community. It allows us to continue to staff crews to clean roads in the winter and repair and maintain our roads in the summer. It will help the police department maintain staffing and continue to provide exceptional service to residents. If you have any questions, please reach out to me, another trustee, or the township office, or join us at a meeting. Meetings of the township trustees are on the first and third Monday at 5:30 and are open to the public. We welcome the opportunity to speak with you and discuss any township matters.