BUTLER TWP — Butler Township residents won’t see a tax increase in 2017, after commissioners voted to advertise a proposed budget that keeps millage rates steady for the sixth straight year.

The township’s 2017 proposed budget, which balances general fund revenues and expenditures at $8.066 million, keeps the township’s total millage rate at 11.25 mills. That millage rate breaks down into 2.534 mills going toward fire protection, 1.663 mills for debt relief, and 7.063 mills for general fund expenses.

One mill in the township is equal to about $156,542. The last countywide property tax assessments was performed in 1969, said township manager Ed Kirkwood.

It’s assessments in general — and specifically residents and businesses going to court to appeal property tax assessments — that continues to chip away at general fund revenue for the municipality, Kirkwood said. There are currently 28 outstanding property tax assessment appeals progressing through the Butler County Court of Common Pleas, he said.

Projected revenue from property taxes in the 2017 budget shrunk to $1.105 million from $1.122 million this year, according to a copy of the proposed budget provided Monday night.

“The only way you rectify this (is to) go through a countywide reassessment,” Kirkwood said.

Expenses in the township also shifted for the coming year, with spending shifting away from one-time expenditures through the township’s equipment capital fund — down 281 percent to $98,880 for 2017 — and toward municipal employee pension contributions, which are up more than 47 percent to $439,387, and police pension contributions, up nearly 40 percent to $529,428, according to the township’s proposed budget.

Significant proposed expenditures within the budget include $68,566 for two police cruisers, $247,860 for street lighting work, $847,207 for scheduled road maintenance projects over the coming fiscal year, $792,568 for health care premiums, and $348,424 for the township’s annual contributions to its three volunteer fire companies.