Upper Darby Township passes $104M budget for 2026

After a meeting that stretched nearly five hours and featured a bevy of public questions and comments, Upper Darby’s council approved the township’s $104 million 2026 budget on Dec. 17.

The township also passed an ordinance cementing its 2026 property tax rate, which is unchanged from 2025 at $1.356 per each $1,000 of assessed property value. Delaware County Council earlier this month adopted a 2026 budget that will impose a 19% property tax increase on all Delco residents.

Notably, this will be Upper Darby’s first full-year budget to reflect an anticipated $17.8 million in additional revenue from an earned income tax (EIT) that the township council approved in September. Previous attempts to levy the 1% tax — which many other Delaware County municipalities already have on the books — were stymied by lawsuits over the wording of the ordinance.

“This critical revenue source allows us to both preserve current service levels and begin planning strategically for the future,” Mayor Ed Brown wrote of the new EIT, per his 2026 budget message posted on the township’s website.

The council ultimately passed the budget ordinance, with 7 members voting yes and 2 — Laura Wentz and Brian Andruszko — voting no. Council member David Bantoe was excused from the vote.

Before the final vote took place, a rotating roster of residents came up to the lectern to sound off on a variety of issues and question various appropriation items in the 2026 budget.

For example, John DeMasi — who was the lead plaintiff in a suit challenging Upper Darby’s new EIT — asked “what caused legal services to go over budget by more than 30%.”

Crandall Jones, the township’s chief administrative officer, replied that Upper Darby is a “litigious community.” He said another factor was the township’s involvement in the legal battle over the closure of the Delaware County Memorial Hospital.

But DeMasi wasn’t satisfied with Jones’ answer. “We know some of the ‘litigious community’… was about the EIT that was butchered multiple times that the CAO approved and said everything was OK; that is what is pushing the legal fees up,” he said.

“Other than blaming the community, did you ever sit down with the solicitors?” DeMasi continued. “I brought up numerous occasions with the last solicitor where there was double, triple, quadruple billing, where there were line items that literally just said, ‘services rendered,’ and they were paid.”

Becky Duggan, meanwhile, questioned the need for $100 licensing fee for pool tables at businesses in the township.

“It’s a fee that a municipality is allowed to charge because there are other services that are provided by the township, the police department, the road department, the fire department that do not generate [revenue],” Bantoe said.

But Duggan said she sees it as “another way to suck money out of small businesses who try to attract people to their business, so [you] can bring more tax revenue to the township.”