Muhlenberg Twp Hears Budget Address, $161K for Ambulance

Muhlenberg Township's commissioners will hear a "Budget Address" on the 2027 budget Monday night and then vote on whether to advertise that budget and next year's tax rate, according to the Nov. 16 agenda posted Friday on the township's agenda portal. The agenda prints no budget total and no millage figure, and nothing in the posted documents says whether the township tax bill is going up.

The same agenda asks the board to move $160,940 from the township's EMS Fund to the Ambulance Association to buy chest compression devices, and to approve a string of park, bridge, roof and stream-restoration contracts and payments. The dollar figures on the agenda add to $916,568.55, by our arithmetic; $755,628.55 of that is contracts, progress payments and a $2,174 change order, and the rest is the ambulance transfer.

The meeting is Monday, Nov. 16, at 6 p.m. at the township building, 210 George Street, Reading, per the portal's event record and the township's calendar.

The budget address and the advertising vote

Item 4.a, under "Public Presentation," is a "Budget Address" (agenda, p. 1). Item 8.h is a "Motion to authorize the Solicitor to advertise the 2027 Budget and Tax Rate" (p. 2). Advertising a budget means publishing a legal notice that the proposed budget is available for the public to inspect before the board adopts it; the notice is the step that starts the clock toward a final vote. The agenda does not name a date for adoption, and no agenda has been posted for the board's next regular meeting, Monday, Dec. 21, at 6 p.m., per the portal's event listing.

The board already held one budget session. The portal lists a "Board of Commissioners 2027 Budget Presentation" for Saturday, Oct. 31, at 8 a.m., whose one-page agenda carries a single item of business, "2027 Budget Presentation," and no figures. Monday's consent agenda approves the minutes of that "October 31, 2026 2027 Budget Meeting" (p. 1), but the minutes are not posted on the portal, and no budget document is attached to either meeting's event page. The township's YouTube channel lists a 1-hour, 36-minute recording titled "Muhlenberg Township's Annual Budget Workshop - 2026," streamed about two weeks before Saturday, which is around the date of the Oct. 31 presentation; Berks Beat has not reviewed it.

The township's budgets page lists no 2027 document as of Saturday. Its newest budget entries are two 2026 drafts: a Draft 2026 General Fund Budget that balances at $20,901,974 in revenue and expenditures (pp. 3, 15), with $5,460,935 in current property tax (p. 1), and a Draft 2026 Fire Fund Budget with $1,481,988 in revenue, $1,024,000 of it fire real estate tax (p. 1). That page is where prior years' budgets were posted, so it is the likeliest place for the 2027 budget to appear once it is advertised. The township's Tax Office page says the board "adopts the official 2026 millage ordinance as part of the annual budget process; the ordinance and any updates will be posted on the Township website when available."

What Muhlenberg taxes now: 6.00 mills, not the 4.80 in the county table

The Tax Office page describes the 2026 township levy as "Sixty Cents ($0.60) on each One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) of assessed valuation" in three parts: 4.80 mills "For road, bridge, and general Township purposes," 0.90 mills for fire apparatus and fire companies, and 0.30 mills "For the purpose of supporting ambulance and rescue squads serving the Township." Those three add to 6.00 mills, by our arithmetic, which matches 60 cents per $100. A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value, so the full township levy is $600 a year on a property assessed at $100,000; see our guide to how a property tax bill is split. The page adds that the figures "represent the anticipated continuation of the Township's tax millage structure adopted in prior years," and the 2026 ordinance itself is not linked there.

The county's 2026 rate table shows a smaller number for a reason it states. Its Muhlenberg row reads "MUHLENBERG 66 0.0048000 0.0401560 0.0539690": a 4.80-mill district rate, a 40.156-mill school rate and a 53.969-mill total, the figures our rates-by-municipality guide carries. The table's footnote says: "These millage rates are listed for convenience purposes only. These rates only represent the millage rates and do not include any additional fees, such as Trash, Recycling, Fire, EMS, etc. or other millage-based taxes. If you want the actual total millage including any additional fees and other millage-based taxes, please contact the school district and/or municipality." So the county's 4.80 is Muhlenberg's general-purpose levy only; add the fire and ambulance levies and a Muhlenberg owner pays the township $600 per $100,000 of assessment, not $480.

One budget signal is on the record. On Oct. 8 the township posted a news flash quoting an Oct. 7 S&P Global Ratings release on its "Series 2026 GO Bonds Rated 'AA'," which says the stable outlook "reflects our expectation that the township will continue to demonstrate strong budgetary performance and maintain very strong budgetary flexibility and liquidity over the next two years." The S&P release the flash links to puts a size on the borrowing: "S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'AA' rating to Muhlenberg Township, Pennsylvania's $5.5 million series of 2026 general obligation (GO) bonds. At the same time, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'AA' rating on Muhlenberg's existing debt." Those are the general obligation bonds the board took up in September under Ordinance 633, which set a ceiling of up to $9 million, as our Sept. 21 preview reported, so the series rated is $3.5 million under that ceiling, by our arithmetic. Neither the flash nor the release's public summary says what the bonds pay for, and the Sept. 21 minutes have not been posted, so the vote on Ordinance 633 is still undocumented on the portal.

$160,940 for chest compression devices

Item 8.f is a "Motion to authorize the transfer of $160,940 from the EMS Fund to the Ambulance Association for the purchase of chest compression devices" (p. 2). A chest compression device is a machine that performs CPR compressions on a patient in place of a rescuer's hands. The agenda names no vendor, model or number of units, and does not say how many ambulances would carry them.

The agenda calls the source the "EMS Fund"; the township's budgets page calls the same kind of account the Ambulance Fund, and the newest one posted is the 2025 Ambulance Fund Budget, a one-page draft in which "Real Estate Tax" supplies $340,000.00 of $343,525.00 in revenue, and spending includes a "Transfer to Ambulance Association" of $156,915.00 and "Ambulance Capital Equip." of $100,000.00. No 2026 ambulance fund budget is posted, so whether Monday's $160,940 transfer fits this year's plan cannot be read from the township site. The Tax Office page says the township "introduced a dedicated ambulance millage in 2022 and subsequently increased it in 2024 to help stabilize EMS funding" after "declining membership and service revenues created operational shortfalls" at the Muhlenberg Ambulance Association, and that for 2026 "the ambulance millage remains consistent with the prior year's level unless changed by the Board of Commissioners." Whether Monday's budget address proposes any change to that 0.30-mill levy is not on the agenda.

About $756,000 in contracts and payments

The agenda's remaining dollar items, in order of size, by our reading of pages 2 and 3:

• $308,927.70 to GSM Roofing, "payment application #2," for the 210 George Street Roof Replacement Project (item 8.q, p. 3). That is the township building where the board meets. The Oct. 19 agenda carried a $1,260 change order #1 on the same project, as our Oct. 19 preview reported; neither agenda states the contract total.
• $127,224 to Contech Engineered Solutions for "the materials for the River Road Bridge Repair project" (item 8.g), plus $27,088.65 to Mar Allen Concrete Products, "payment application #1," for work on the same project (item 8.l). The agenda does not describe the repair or say which River Road crossing it is.
• $124,904 to Landscape Structures Inc. for "new playground equipment at the Reading Crest Playground," to be installed by the Public Works Superintendent (item 8.e).
• $75,893.28 to Garland Construction Services, "payment application #2 and 3," for the Pioneer Grove Kayak Launch Project (item 8.k), and a change order #2 "in the amount of +$2,174 from Garland Construction Services for work not completed" on that project (item 8.j). A change order is a formal revision to a signed contract. The Sept. 21 agenda listed payment application 1 of $51,287.40 and a "change order #1 for the Pioneer Grove Kayak Launch in the amount of $2,174" (Sept. 21 agenda, items 8.k and 8.l); Monday's change order #2 carries the identical figure, and the agenda does not explain the match or what "work not completed" means for the launch.
• $62,416.92 to Empire Services, "payment application #5," for the Riparian Forest Buffer and Streambank Restoration Project (item 8.p). A riparian buffer is a strip of trees and plants along a stream bank that holds the soil and filters runoff. The agenda does not name the stream.
• $27,000 to The Breneman Group, "payment application #1 FINAL," for the Darby Avenue Pickle Ball Courts (item 8.m). The Sept. 21 agenda awarded "the 401 Darby Ave Pickleball court color coat contract to the Brenneman Company in the amount of $27,000"; the two agendas differ on the contractor's spelling and on "Group" versus "Company," and Monday's payment equals the September award.

Two land development plans, a Comcast deal and snow bids

Items 8.b and 8.c would grant "conditional final plan approval to the Car Tech Building 120 Land Development Plan" and "conditional plan approval to the Kings Trucking Depot Land Development Plan," each "and all waivers as requested conditioned on SDEI's most recent review letter" (p. 2). A land development plan is the detailed engineering plan a developer files for a building project; conditional approval means the project may proceed only once the conditions in the engineer's review letter are met. The agenda does not spell out SDEI, post the review letters, or describe either project. Kings Trucking is the plan the Oct. 19 agenda proposed extending to Jan. 15, 2027, per our preview of that meeting.

Item 8.d is a "Motion to approve the Comcast Franchise Agreement as presented" (p. 2). A cable franchise agreement sets the terms under which a cable company uses township rights-of-way and what it pays the township for the privilege. The agreement is not posted. For scale, the Draft 2026 General Fund Budget counts $300,000 in "CABLE TV FEE" revenue (p. 1); the agenda does not say whether the new agreement changes that.

Item 8.i would let the Public Works Superintendent "receive bids for the 2027 Snow Removal Project" (p. 2). Items 8.n and 8.o would approve "financial security reduction request #2 and close the maintenance bond for the Sheetz Store #226 Rebuild" and do the same for "the Stonepointe Bus Depot LDP" (pp. 2-3). Financial security is the bond or letter of credit a developer posts to guarantee that required site work gets finished; closing it returns the developer's money.

The Oct. 19 votes, still unrecorded

The consent agenda approves the "Commissioner's Minutes October 19, 2026" (p. 1). That meeting's agenda carried the $595,000 Local Share Account grant request for fire apparatus, the $113,082.53 fire traffic truck and the third amendment to the Bern Fire Services Agreement, as our Oct. 19 preview reported, and the amended Oct. 19 agenda still lists those items (p. 2). The minutes are not on the portal, so how those votes went is not in the public record this preview can cite. The township's YouTube channel streams its meetings; Berks Beat has not reviewed the Oct. 19 recording.

Also on consent: Library Board minutes from Oct. 12, the Planning Commission's August minutes, and the October reports from Codes & Engineering, GoTo Muhlenberg, Finance, Parks and Recreation and the Police Department, plus "MAA November Board Notes" (pp. 1-2).

How to attend or comment

The board meets Monday at 6 p.m. at 210 George Street, Reading. The agenda sets two public portions, one before the consent agenda and one after new business, for "residents and/or taxpayers of the Township to comment on matters of concern, official actions or deliberation which are or may be before the Board of Commissioners." Speakers must "sign in, wait to be recognized, and then announce your name & address before your comments," and the agenda says to "Limit comments to no more than 5 minutes" (pp. 1, 3). The agenda lists five commissioners: Walt LaSota, Mike Merkel, Dillon Cirulli, Kevin Lerch and Michael Malinowski (p. 3); the township's board page lists Malinowski as president and Lerch as vice president and says the board meets at 6 p.m. on the third Monday of every month, except in February, when it meets the third Tuesday. For the rest of the county's calendar, see our township and borough meeting schedule.