New Freedom budget workshop: DCNR grant paused, Franklin Square appeals cut taxable value and complicate revenue outlook

New Freedom Borough council members and staff met in a budget workshop to review the draft budget, tax-rate history and related items, where staff said the borough will not owe reimbursement to a paused DCNR grant and outlined how a recent assessment appeal on the Franklin Square development reduced taxable value and municipal revenue projections.

Borough staff (identified in the transcript as "Borough staff") told council members that "we basically have additional monies because we don't have to pay back the DCNR grant," and later clarified, "No. There's no there's no reimbursement due to DCNR for any grant funds because we asked for reimbursement, not not even upfront." Staff also said the grant and associated pay for the recreation director are effectively paused: "So basically, both things stop at this point. Obviously, we the commission stopped paying recreation director and DCNR stopped our called our grant opportunity."

Why it matters: the pause changes how much grant-funded salary will appear in borough spending and leaves staff and council to decide whether paused funds create capacity elsewhere in the budget. Borough staff emphasized the pause does not create immediate discretionary funding because reimbursement is tied to actual expenditures: "We we can't get reimbursed for something. We're not…