LANGHORNE, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania township with more money than it anticipated from increased property tax collection has decided to give the dividends to residents. 
  
 Middletown Township in Langhorne sent 14,361 checks for $68 each to all owners of properties with structures on them. 
  
 Efforts to keep town expenses down while increasing delinquent-tax collection led to more money than anticipated in the general fund. The township board of supervisors decided to divide a $1 million portion of the surplus evenly among property owners. 
  
 Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Amy Strouse tells the Bucks County Courier Times it's irresponsible for a township to hang on to that level of funding when it has "the opportunity to help people out a little bit." 
  
 Strouse says residents feel as though they pay too much in taxes. ||||| Supervisors in April voted to return $1 million from Middletown's general fund to 14,361 township property owners. Those owners were mailed $68 checks earlier this month. 
  
 Middletown officials ended up having a little extra cash in hand, and now, so do property owners in the township. 
  
 The township in early June sent $68 checks as one-time "financial appropriations" to 14,361 "owners of improved property" — in legal terms, anyone who owns township property that isn't vacant land, said Solicitor James Esposito. 
  
 The supervisors' April decision to let go of $1 million of its general fund followed a discussion among board members and some public speakers of the merit of sending the money back to taxpayers compared to keeping it in township coffers. 
  
 Officials supportive of the payments have pointed to what they see as Middletown's healthy general fund balance — $9,734,300, as of last year's end, on account of the township paying less than it budgeted for most expenditures — plus around $900,000 Keystone Collections recovered in delinquent earned income taxes. 
  
 In light of those figures, board vice Chairman Mike Ksiazek said the checks would be a way to reduce the "tremendous financial burden" township residents told him about while he was campaigning for office last year. 
  
 Ksiazek said it is his "sincere belief that, if it's prudent and financially responsible to do so, then at least some of that money should be returned," and that he hopes it will spur property development and improvement. 
  
 Supervisor William Oettinger, the five-person board's lone vote against the payments, disagreed, calling them "completely uncalled for" and saying the township should instead use the money to hire more police and public works department employees. 
  
 Immediately after approving the checks in April, supervisors voted to appropriate money for hiring one new police officer and one new public works laborer. 
  
 "The status quo isn't good enough when you have department heads telling you they need more help, and we keep on shooting them down, or throwing them a bone now and then, 'Here's one cop there, here's a public works guy there' ... this just doesn't make any sense." 
  
 Resident Nancy McCann addressed the board, saying, "I'd love to get the $70 back, that's fine with me ... but to give away money that you say we don't have to get additional police officers, I would hate to cut off our nose to spite our face." 
  
 Supervisors Chairwoman Amy Strouse said the board has heard "loud and clear" from residents that they feel they pay too much in taxes. The board can strike a balance between giving residents relief and hiring new employees, she added. 
  
 "We are in a situation where the general fund balance has crept up over time, and I think it's irresponsible for a township to hang on to that level of funding when we have the opportunity to help people out a little bit," she said. "And if $70 is going to help somebody out a little bit with their medical bills, with putting food on the table for the next month or making their mortgage payment, then that's not an opportunity that I'm willing to pass up." |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?
– A Pennsylvania township with more money than it anticipated from increased property tax collection has decided to give the dividends to residents, the AP reports. Middletown Township in Bucks County sent 14,361 checks for $68 each to all owners of properties with structures on them. Efforts to keep town expenses down while increasing delinquent-tax collection led to more money than anticipated in the general fund. The township board of supervisors decided to divide a $1 million portion of the surplus evenly among property owners. Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Amy Strouse tells the Bucks County Courier Times it's irresponsible for a township to hang on to that level of funding when it has "the opportunity to help people out a little bit. And if $70 is going to help somebody out a little bit with their medical bills, with putting food on the table for the next month or making their mortgage payment, then that's not an opportunity that I'm willing to pass up." Strouse says residents feel as though they pay too much in taxes.