West Penn Township residents may have to dole out more money on municipal taxes next year.

Supervisors on a 2-0 vote Tuesday morning agreed to advertise the 2026 budget.

Afterward, the board approved next year’s spending plan with a 10% increase of real estate taxes, which equates to $71,715.

Before the vote, board Chairman Tony Prudenti noted that the township was originally $225,000 over what it was at last year.

“A lot of that is contractual,” Prudenti said. “I believe part of that was things people thought they needed in their budget, and we’re trying to nip away.

Township treasurer Karen Wittig said she was told the township will get a reassessed value with new millage by the end of this week.

However, Prudenti said he doesn’t believe things will change too much either way.

“I don’t see us getting any more money,” Prudenti said. “It’s not as easy as it was (in prior years) to raise taxes.”

It was noted that the road department came down $42,000 (part-time seasonal employee), the police department took $5,000 out (wages), and the office department went down by $5,000.

That prompted resident Shawn Phillips to question how the board’s decision will impact those respective department’s moving forward.

“Is that something (they’ll need) down the road? “You take it now, it’s probably going to cost twice as much (in the future).”

Prudenti assured Phillips that the township can always adjust if or when such a situation comes up.

“If something comes up and somebody needs something, there is some money there,” Prudenti said. “I say we go advertise this budget, and if the numbers come in crazy from the county, then we readjust in January.”

The board will likely adopt the final budget at its second meeting in December.

Supervisor Glenn Hummel was absent.

Last year, supervisors adopted this year’s budget with a 1-mill increase, which raised the millage rate from 3.50 to 4.50 mills.