Your tax rate is getting cut in half. Your tax bill isn’t. Welcome to reassessment math.
COLUMBIA — Good news: Columbia’s borough tax rate is about to drop from 10 mills to about 5. Bad news: your house is apparently worth twice as much now, so the borough will still collect about 10% more. Borough Council got its first look at the 2027 budget Tuesday night, Oct. 21. Nothing is final. Council meets again Nov. 5 to keep crunching.
How the math works (no calculator required)
The county just re-valued every property for the first time since 2018. Columbia’s total property value jumped from about $438 million to about $937 million. Congratulations, you’re all rich on paper. State law says when values go up, towns have to cut their tax rate so they don’t hit the jackpot. But it lets them keep up to 10% extra. Columbia’s draft takes the full 10%.
What that means for you:
- If your home’s value went up about as much as everyone else’s, your borough tax goes up about 10%.
- If it went up more than your neighbors’, you pay more.
- If it went up less, you might actually pay less. Enjoy that feeling.
- The borough only gets about 15 cents of every property tax dollar you pay.
- The school district gets about 75 cents and the county about 10. They do their own math later.
Spending more than it makes
Even with the extra tax money, the draft budget spends about $474,000 more than it brings in. The borough will cover the difference from savings, like the rest of us in December.
Expected income: $8.26 million. Expected spending: $8.73 million.
The borough is also counting on a $1.3 million state grant that has been “on its way” for more than a year. Without it, Columbia ends 2027 with about $1.5 million in cash instead of $1.8 million.
And that cash isn’t spare money, Council President Eric Kauffman pointed out. Most tax payments don’t arrive until spring, so it’s what keeps the lights on from January to April.
Police: the biggest slice
Police cost about $4.1 million, nearly half the budget. The department has 16 employed including Chief Arndt. She hopes to have a few more officers by the end of 2027.
Most borough workers would get about a 3% raise. Health insurance is going up 10%, which these days counts as good news. Last year it jumped 17%.
Farewell, coin meters (maybe, finally)
Columbia’s parking system is running on technology from another era. The ticket software isn’t supported anymore. Tickets print on a dot-matrix printer. And there are reportedly several bags of quarters in excess of nine waiting for a trip to the bank. Council wants to switch to a phone app and electronic tickets in the first few months of 2027, at a cost of about $30,000. Members admitted they agreed to this years ago. It just kept getting lost every time the borough changed managers.
Speaking of managers
Council hired Ron Youtz as interim borough manager at $50 an hour, starting Oct. 30. For a permanent manager, council talked about budgeting around $150,000 a year, since lower pay hasn’t exactly had candidates lining up.
One grant said no
The borough learned last week it did not get a $250,000 state grant for repairs to the Columbia Crossing building. The budget will be adjusted. Cue the sad trombone.
The great police ‘cut’ debate
A resident asked about the police chief’s claim that council cut more than $200,000 from police in 2021. A council member said it wasn’t a cut. Council just stopped budgeting for officers the department didn’t actually have. “We never said no,” was said.
What it means for your borough tax bill
Your borough tax depends on how much your home’s assessed value went up compared with the rest of Columbia. These examples assume a new borough rate of about 5.14 mills, our estimate of a 10% increase. The final rate is not set yet.
| Your home’s assessed value | Old borough tax (10 mills) | New borough tax (about 5.14 mills) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Went from $100,000 to $150,000 (rose less than average) | $1,000 | about $771 | about $229 less |
| Went from $100,000 to $214,000 (rose about average) | $1,000 | about $1,100 | about $100 more |
| Went from $100,000 to $300,000 (rose more than average) | $1,000 | about $1,542 | about $542 more |
To estimate your own: multiply your new assessed value by 0.00514. Your new assessed value is on the reassessment notice the county mailed this year.
This covers only the borough’s part of the bill. School and county taxes are set separately.
The budget at a glance
| Item | 2027 draft |
|---|---|
| General fund income | $8.26 million |
| General fund spending | $8.73 million |
| Gap, covered from cash on hand | $474,000 |
| Property tax income | about $4.9 million |
| Earned income tax (1% of wages) | $1.36 million |
| Police department | about $4.1 million (nearly half of spending) |
| Cash expected at end of 2027 | $1.8 million with state grant; about $1.5 million without |
Other income in the draft: $265,000 from taxes on home sales, $133,000 from Comcast cable fees, and $125,000 from the $52-a-year tax on people who work in the borough.
Big projects in the plan: Ridge Avenue reconstruction (about $2.55 million, likely over several years), Walnut Street improvements paid for by PennDOT, and repairs to the Columbia Crossing building, mostly through grants.
The Columbia Chronicle will continue to follow these meetings about our budget! Enjoy the parade tonight!
