Despite some community pushback at supervisors’ meetings and via lawn signs, the new tax passed unanimously.
Easttown residents will pay a new tax in 2025. After the public weighed in for 2.5 hours, Easttown Supervisors Monday night voted unanimously to levy an .5% Earned Income Tax on working residents.
That will translate to $925/yr for a wage earner making $185K, which is Easttown residents’ average annual wage, according to a revenue study commissioned jointly by Tredyffrin and Easttown last year. The study estimates that the EIT will swell Easttown’s coffers by $4.4M annually.
The primary driver: funding increasing costs for essential safety services, including police and fire. There’s a new fire house under construction in Berwyn and a need to hire more first responders because fewer are volunteering. Many Easttown officials also believe police desperately need facility and equipment upgrades and could use a second traffic officer. By law, Easttown must balance its budget each year.
“It’s a good thing for the township going forward,” says Michael Wacey, vice chair of Easttown’s board of supes. “It was a step we’ve needed to make – we’ve discussed for the last three years – and we’ve made it.”
But Wacey says he became a supervisor to try to bring a sense of community to a suburban township. “I just hope this doesn’t split the community,” he says.
The fine print for Easttown residents:
**If you’re already paying .5% EIT to the municipality where you work, you won’t pay twice – Easttown gets your money.
**If you already pay a 1% EIT to your place of employment, you’ll pay .5% to Easttown and .5% to the municipality where you work.
**If you work in Philly, you’ll still pay Phila. Wage Tax but won’t have to pay Easttown’s EIT.
Social security checks, interest, dividends and other unearned income are exempt. So retired seniors shouldn’t be affected.
What about Easttown’s neighbors? Tredyffrin voted against an EIT last year but has a much broader commercial property tax base. Most Chesco townships impose an EIT – typically at 1%: Willistown. Charlestown, Phoenixville & East Whiteland, among them. In Delco, Radnor, Edgemont and Newtown don’t have an EIT. Lower Merion doesn’t either.