Board OKs $403M budget
Property taxes remain steady for 2018
The Montgomery County Commissioners approved the 2018 budget with no tax increases Dec. 14, but the acknowledgment of a tragic fire was the first order of business.
Before the meeting began in earnest, commissioners’ Chairwoman Val Arkoosh called for a moment of silence to remember Bryan Lukens Jr., 11, and Parker Lukens, 6, the sons of Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputy Bryan Lukens who died in
a blaze at their Schwenksville home early Dec. 13.
The elder Lukens, his wife, and their daughter survived.
Arkoosh said the thoughts and prayers of everyone in the Montgomery County family were with the Lukens family and also with residents who were displaced by a fire that destroyed one row house and severely damaged another on Arch Street in Norristown Dec. 11.
The budget, presented by county Chief Financial Officer Dean Dortone, passed unanimously. It includes $403.2 million in expenditures out of nearly $407 million in projected revenues, which assume a growth of 0.8 percent in the county’s real estate assessment base, leaving a $67.3 million fund balance with real estate tax millage rates of 3.459 for the county and .39 for the Montgomery County Community College — unchanged from 2017.
Under the millage rate, a homeowner with a singlefamily property assessed at the county average of $170,000 will pay $588 in property taxes to the county next year.
Real estate taxes account for about half of the budget’s operating revenue, with 35 percent coming from federal and state grants, 13.7 percent from departmental earnings and slightly less than 1 percent from other sources. Revenues include about $1.6 million in gambling revenue, $1 million of which will be reserved in the general fund and be allocated for use on parks, trails and historical sites.
Another $600,000 will be added to the general fund as a pass-through to be used by victims’ services programs; Mission Kids and Laurel House, Dortone said.
The county’s largest expense is health and human services at 37.1 percent of the budget, followed by judicial expenses at 18.3 percent and corrections at 17.3 percent. Debt service and county administration come in at 11.2 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively, with subsidies, public safety and other expenses making up the remaining 5.2 percent of expenditures.
An early intervention opioid pilot program with state grant funding of $200,000 and county administrative expenses of an additional $100,000 was the only notable change to the proposed budget Dortone presented to the commissioners last month.
Also, in accordance with the findings of a recently completed compensation study, there will be a 2 percent base wage increase for all nonunion county employees and base wage increases for county workers represented by five union groups effective Jan. 1.
“The 2018 proposed budget continues adjusting in the core functions of county government like rebuilding and improving our infrastructure, providing important health and human services to seniors and veterans and children, expanding our county trail system and investing in our county employees, all without raising county property taxes,” said Arkoosh, who thanked Dortone and his team, including Chief Operating Officer Lauren Lambrugo and Deputy Chief Operating Officer Lee Soltysiak, for the “countless hours” they put into formulating the budget.
“This proposed budget and capital improvement program reflect months of careful consideration to identify cost savings and priorities for 2018.”
Arkoosh went on to tout the compensation study as the first step in a concerted effort to attract and retain talent in county government and said Montgomery County still has the lowest level of property tax rates among the four Philadelphia metro area counties.
“Our county is on sound financial footing due to years of adhering to fiscal priorities, Investing in longterm capital planning, improving our aging infrastructure and maintaining an appropriate fund balance,” she said.
Commissioner Ken Lawrence also thanked everyone who helped put the “fiscally responsible budget” together and said he was pleased that there were no tax increases while high levels of service would be maintained.
Lawrence also made special mention of the capital improvement program and said he was looking forward to developments in the county campus plan, which includes a re-skinning of Montgomery One Plaza, the building in which the commissioners are headquartered.
“When I campaigned for this position, I told thousands of residents across Montgomery County that I would oppose tax increases,” said Commissioner Joe Gale.
“Last year, this administration implemented a double-digit tax increase, which I aggressively opposed. This budget reflects no tax increase which is what I and many other residents of Montgomery County expect after facing back-toback tax increases amounting to 21 percent over two years,” he said.
In other business, Mike Vest, the county’s deputy director of public safety, presented 911 Program Manager Annamaria Mastrocola with an award of accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
The three-year accreditation was earned by the emergency communications center for its compliance with 213 standards covering all aspects of dispatch center public safety from operational structure to homeland security.
Of the approximately 6,000 911 centers, also known as public safety answering points, across the country, Vest said, “Only 47 of them have earned this recognition, which puts us in the top one percentile of the whole nation.”
Montgomery County is also the only county in Pennsylvania ever to have earned the award, Vest said.