The Montgomery County Commissioners have released their FY2012 budget and it eliminates funding for the Department of Parks and Heritage Services, the Planning Commission, the Elmwood Park Zoo, and the Montgomery County/Norristown Library. It also reduces funding for the Montgomery County Community College.
IN THE NEWS
In this article, the tax increase and the deficit-cutting methods, the two ideas proposed by Montgomery County Commissioners Matthews and Castor respectively, are explained with a closer look at the potential County service losses and tax fees associated with each solution.
In the tax increase plan, residents would individually pay $130 in additional taxes, which, according to Commission Matthews would remain the lowest in the region. In the cost-cutting method, the Department of Parks and Heritage Services, the Planning Commission, the Elmwood Park Zoo, and the Montgomery County/Norristown Library would be eliminated. In this method funding would also be reduced for the Montgomery County Community College.
The Commissioners are asking for residents to let them know which solution would be most desired.
This article focuses on the impact the cuts proposed in the Montgomery County Commissioners’ preliminary budget will have on County employees, stating number of jobs lost by termination and attrition as well as the fact that the plan proposes a third year of no salary increases for the remaining workers.
More information is given here about the process behind preparing this cost-cutting only budget (according to Phillyburbs.com, the senior staff was charged with presenting a budget to the Commissioners that had no tax increases but that also showed a cash balance of $24.5 million) as well as a few additional options for dealing with the deficit such as depleting the County’s cash reserve and adding more payless furlough days.
NOTE: A public hearing on the preliminary budget will be held at 10am on Wednesday, December 7, 2011. Final adoption of the 2012 budget is scheduled for December 21, 2011.
FULL TEXT OF PRESS RELEASE
MONTGOMERY COUNTY OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
COURT HOUSE, NORRISTOWN, PA., BOX 311, 19404-0311
PHONE (610) 278-3061 FAX 278-5943
COMMISSIONERS: JAMES R. MATTHEWS, Chairman, JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Vice Chairman, BRUCE CASTOR
RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY 11/30/11 PR#41-11
Montgomery County Commissioners Introduce No Tax Increase Budget for 2012
NORRISTOWN — Montgomery County unveiled a $389.33 million budget for 2012 Wednesday that calls for no tax increase that would, if adopted, include drastic cuts to numerous programs and services.
The proposed budget would maintain taxes at the same level for the fifth year in a row, still five percent less than what homeowners were paying on the county portion of their real estate taxes in 2002.
It would also slash spending for a fourth year in a row, but it would eliminate some departments entirely, cut spending in almost all others, resulting in hundreds of layoffs, and reduce or eliminate funding to numerous agencies that provide services to County residents.
The proposed budget, as introduced, is merely a starting point for purposes of discussion. A public hearing on it is scheduled for the Commissioners next meeting on December 7th at 10 a.m. and a final adoption vote is scheduled for December 21st at 10 a.m.
The proposed budget would eliminate $2.3 million in funding for the Montgomery County/Norristown Library and reduce the Montgomery County Community College’s funding by $2.5 million.
It also calls for eliminating the County Parks and Heritage Services and Planning departments entirely for a combined $7.7 million reduction in expenditures and reducing the Court House Security and Sheriff’s departments budgets by $1 million and providing no pay increase for County employees for the third year in a row.
Under the proposed budget, the owner of a home assessed at the county average of $168,850 would continue to pay $455.05 for the county portion of their real estate taxes next year.
The tax rate for the County portion of residents’ real estate taxes will remain 2.695 mills. A mill is $1 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Taxes are lower in Montgomery County for properties of equal market value than in any of the neighboring counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania and among the lowest in the state.
Residents of Montgomery County pay $156 in county taxes on their properties for every $100,000 in market value. That compares to $221 per $100,000 in market value for Chester County, $247 in Bucks County and $350 in Delaware County.
The proposed budget and details of the proposed spending reductions, as well as a place to leave your comments, are available on the County’s Web site HERE.
