CENTER TWP — Supervisors unanimously adopted a supervisor compensation ordinance during a meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 11, but it won’t go into effect until 2026.

That ordinance stemmed from State House Bill 2288, which permits township supervisors to vote on giving themselves a pay raise over the course of the next five years. The bill was passed over the summer by legislators and signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro in early October.

Pay raises will go into effect only after a supervisor goes through the reelection process, meaning none of the supervisors in the state’s 1,456 second-class townships can benefit until at least 2026.

Vice chairman Robert Sloan and Alan Smallwood, two of the township’s five supervisors, would be eligible for additional compensation if they were reelected when their terms end in 2026.

“If we got reelected, then we would get the higher rate,” said chairman Philip Wulff.

The law will apply to all supervisors come January 2030.

Extra compensation for supervisors will depend entirely on a township’s population.

According to the 2020 census, Center Township’s population sits at 7,900 residents, which raises the annual maximum compensation for supervisors from $2,500 to $4,190.

For townships with less 4,999 residents, the bill raised the annual maximum compensation from $1,875 to $3,145. On the opposite end of the spectrum, supervisors for the state’s largest townships that have 35,000 or more residents would see a bump from $5,000 to $8,385.

There are also fluctuating pay increases for townships that have between 10,000 and 34,999 residents.

The law also authorizes townships to shift to a per-meeting compensation arrangement that would hinge on attendance, but any change that would be approved would still adhere to the maximum annual compensation outlined in the bill.