Bern Township Budget Puts Property-Tax Line 44% Over 2025

Bern Township has put a $6,599,215 General Fund budget for 2027 out for public inspection, and the biggest number in it is the one it does not explain. The proposed budget, posted Nov. 5, counts on $2,966,250 in current real-estate tax. The township collected $2,061,235.90 from that tax in 2025 and $1,935,181.84 in 2024, according to the same worksheet. By our arithmetic the 2027 line is $905,014.10, or about 44 percent, above 2025. The seven-page document carries no tax rate, so what that jump means for a tax bill is not on the record. The supervisors will vote on adoption at their Dec. 1, 7 p.m. meeting at the township office, 1069 Old Bernville Road, according to the public notice.

At the Oct. 2, 2025 budget workshop, Township Manager Brian Potts recommended a 0.56-mill general-fund tax increase for 2026 plus 0.19 mill for the fire station, and the minutes record him saying "we should implement a tax increase for 2027 as well." The board adopted the 2026 increase that December. Whether the 2027 document carries a second one is the question residents can put to the board before Dec. 1.

What the $6.6 million buys

The worksheet, headed "Bern Township General Fund / 2027 / Budget Worksheet," is hand-marked "FINAL," annotated BUDGET "A" under the 2027 column and "Updated October 26, 2026" under the prior-year columns. It lists income and expenses side by side with the January-through-August 2026 figures and the full-year 2025 and 2024 figures. Income and expense both total $6,599,215. The biggest spending lines:

Line	Proposed 2027	2025
Police (all lines)	$1,767,145	$1,740,937.77
Hospitalization (health insurance)	$1,302,695	$995,860.34
Highways (all lines)	$845,630	$815,950.30
Fund balance carried forward to 2028	$650,000	$0
Uniform (police) pension	$590,960	$589,952
Manager salary	$130,000	$131,634.10
Tax collector salary	$85,130	$58,229.78
Fire company	$59,000	$58,015.51

All figures are from the worksheet. Debt service is $0 in every year shown. The 2025 column records $5,601,126.16 in spending against $4,845,590.74 in income; the sheet's last row shows the gap as -$755,535.42. No 2026 budget worksheet is posted; the Dec. 2, 2025 minutes put the adopted 2026 General Fund budget at $6,369,300, so the 2027 proposal is about 3.6 percent larger by our arithmetic.

The real-estate line, and what it does not say

The document gives no rate. A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. The township's Taxes page itemizes the 2026 levy as 5.01 mills for general township purposes, 0.21 mill for capital improvements and 0.89 mill for fire protection, 6.11 mills in all; the county's 2026 tax-rate table lists the same total as 0.0061100. Only the 5.01 general-fund mills feed the real-estate line in this budget; at that rate a property assessed at $100,000 pays $501 a year to the General Fund by our arithmetic. The rate is set in a document separate from the budget worksheet, and no 2027 rate is posted; the Taxes page still shows the 2026 levy.

The 2026 increase is already in the columns. The general-fund rate rose 0.56 mill for 2026, the Dec. 2, 2025 minutes say, which against the Taxes page's 5.01 mills puts the 2025 rate at 4.45 mills, an increase of about 12.6 percent by our arithmetic. Current real-estate collections for January through August 2026 were $2,284,394.72, already $223,158.82 (about 10.8 percent) more than the township collected in all of 2025. Even so, the 2027 line is $681,855.28, or about 30 percent, above the eight-month 2026 figure, and the document does not say where that comes from.

Our arithmetic, with its assumption stated: if collections tracked the levy, the $2,061,235.90 collected at 4.45 mills in 2025 implies a taxed base of roughly $463 million. At 5.01 mills that base yields about $2.32 million for 2026, close to the $2,284,394.72 already collected by August. A $2,966,250 line on the same base implies roughly 6.4 general-fund mills, about 1.4 mills above 2026, or roughly $140 more a year on a $100,000 assessment, unless the assessed base grows or the line includes something else. That is the question for the board, and it is consistent with the increase Potts recommended a year ago. The township has not posted a rate. Potts told the board Oct. 6 that an email would go out to schedule the 2027 budget meeting, as our Oct. 6 recap reported; no notice or minutes of one is posted.

Other tax lines sit close to what came in before. Earned income tax, the tax on wages that reaches the township through the county Tax Collection Committee, is $1,260,000 against $1,238,296.68 collected in 2025. Local services tax, the flat tax on people who work in the township, is $350,000 against $342,517.01. Total tax revenue is $4,883,450, up $979,201.75 from 2025 by our count, and $905,014.10 of that increase is the real-estate line.

Police, benefits and pensions

Police is the largest department at $1,767,145, up 1.5 percent from 2025. The chief's salary is $140,345 (2025: $128,544), salaries and wages are $1,302,250 (2025: $1,326,346.32) and overtime is $65,000. Vehicle capital outlay is $0; equipment money instead moves through a $78,000 transfer to a police equipment escrow, an account set aside for one purpose (2025: $68,000).

The fastest-growing line is hospitalization, the township's health-insurance cost, at $1,302,695. That is $306,834.66, or about 31 percent, above the $995,860.34 spent in 2025. The 2026 column tells a different story: $934,958.14 was spent through August, a pace of roughly $1.4 million for the year by our arithmetic, which would put the 2027 line below this year's run rate rather than above it. The Nov. 3, 2025 minutes record the 2026 renewal coming in at 10.5 percent after Potts had projected 15 percent.

The uniform pension is $590,960, almost exactly the 2025 figure of $589,952, and the non-uniform pension is $92,870, down from $129,536. The township expects $233,580 in state pension aid, listed as Foreign Casualty Pension (the worksheet spells it "Casulty"), on the income side.

The carryover

On the income side, "Other Financing Sources (prior year carry over)" is $786,120, money left from earlier years that the township will spend in 2027; the 2025 and 2024 columns show $0 there. On the expense side, "Fund Balance Forward (2028)" is $650,000, set aside to start 2028 with. A fund balance is what a government has left after paying its bills. Without the carryover, 2027 income would be $5,813,095 against $6,599,215 in spending, by our arithmetic. The worksheet does not say what the township's fund balance is now; the general fund held $2,128,835.48 as of Oct. 6, according to the finance report in our Oct. 6 recap.

A second escrow, $65,000 for road equipment, rounds out the balance transfers at $143,000.

The manager's salary is $130,000, just under the $131,634.10 paid in 2025. Potts is retiring at the end of the year and Chair Irene Reed introduced Jessica Seiders as assistant manager in October, as our Oct. 6 recap reported. The tax collector's salary rises to $85,130 from $58,229.78 in 2025, a 46 percent jump by our count. The budget does not say how that pay is set.

What happened last year

The 2026 budget trail runs through three sets of minutes. The Oct. 2, 2025 workshop minutes, a one-page scan linked on the supervisors' page as "Budget Workshop_M," say Potts "presented two balanced general fund budget drafts for 2026." Draft "A" "included a 0.31 mill tax increase with a fund balance of $636,410.00" and Draft "B" "included a 0.56 mill tax increase with a fund balance of $525,330.00."

The minutes continue: "At this time Mr. Potts recommended That the Supervisors adopt Draft 'B' and that we should implement a tax increase for 2027 as well."

The workshop minutes record no vote. The board took the recommendation a month later: on Nov. 3, 2025, the supervisors voted 4-0 to advertise Draft "B" at $6,369,300, and the Nov. 3 minutes say "The millage increase would be total of .75 mill., fire tax is .19 mill. and general fund .56 mill." On Dec. 2, 2025, the board adopted the 2026 General Fund budget 4-1, Supervisor Daniel Tobias voting no, the Dec. 2 minutes say, with Potts stating it was "the Draft 'B' portion which carries .56 mill increase." The 2027 worksheet is annotated BUDGET "A"; the document does not say whether a Draft "B" exists this year.

What is not on the record

The budget is the General Fund only. The 2025 workshop minutes mention a light district fee, a capital improvement fund tax and a 0.19-mill increase in the fire protection levy (0.89 mills in 2026, per the Taxes page); the 2027 document shows none of those funds, and what they will charge in 2027 is not posted. The same minutes record "a new recycling collection fee of $105.00 per unit per year" and a trash fee of $335 per unit for 2026, charges that also sit outside this worksheet.

The Nov. 2 supervisors meeting, where the agenda listed "Discussion/Approval to Advertise the 2027 Budget" as item D.1, has no posted minutes. The same agenda carried the Technology Industrial District ordinance, advertising of the Data Center Ordinance, a Stinson Drive closure and a time extension for a Stinson Drive Properties plan; none of those votes is on the record either. Our reports on the township's W. Leesport Road corridor cover the Stinson Drive and Riverfront credit union plans.

Two details in the township's own documents disagree. The public notice says the adoption meeting is "Monday, December 1, 2026"; Dec. 1 is a Tuesday, and the Nov. 2 agenda lists the next meeting as "Tuesday, December 1, 2026, at 7:00 PM." The notice also gives 610-926-9028 as the number to call for an accommodation, which the township homepage lists as the fax line; the homepage lists the office phone as 610-926-2267.

The county's slice of the same bill is also in play: its chief financial officer told the commissioners Oct. 15 that holding reserves at policy means a 3.4 percent county tax increase, $15.8 million in cuts, or both, as our recap reported.

How to inspect and comment

The notice says the proposed budget "is available for public inspection at the Bern Township Office, 1069 Old Bernville Road, Reading PA 19605, during regular business hours, and on the Township website." The homepage lists office hours as Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to noon. "Any interested persons are invited to provide comments prior to final adoption," the notice says. The adoption vote is at the Dec. 1 regular meeting, 7 p.m., at the township office. Irene Reed chairs the five-member board, according to the board page.

Sources

• Bern Township General Fund, 2027 Budget Worksheet, marked FINAL, updated Oct. 26, 2026 (PDF scan, posted Nov. 5)
• Public Notice: Bern Township 2027 Budget (Nov. 5, 2026)
• Budget Workshop minutes, Oct. 2, 2025 (PDF scan)
• Board of Supervisors minutes, Nov. 3, 2025 (PDF)
• Board of Supervisors minutes, Dec. 2, 2025 (PDF)
• Bern Township Taxes page (2026 levy)
• Board of Supervisors agenda, Nov. 2, 2026 (PDF)
• Board of Supervisors page
• Bern Township homepage
• Berks County 2026 Tax Rates (PDF, Berks County Assessment Office)