Council approves 12 pct. tax hike

POTTSTOWN » With a 4-3 vote, borough council stumbled across the budget finish line Dec. 18 by adopting a $54.4 million budget for 2018 that will raise property taxes by 12 percent.

For a property assessed at $85,000, that means a tax increase of $105.42, according to Finance Director Janice Lee.

Technically, the tax hike is 11.999 percent and the budget of $54,382,037 will require a tax millage of 11.580 mills, said Borough Manager Mark Flanders.

Council members Sheryl Miller and Dennis Arms voted against both the budget and the tax rate, both arguing for more cuts. Councilman Ryan Procsal voted against the budget as well, but he took the opposite tack, advocating for the latest administration budget that would have raised taxes by 12.99 percent.

Having hung tight at a tax hike of 18.6 percent through several contentious meetings, the administration proposal was revealed only after council members had wrangled for about an hour over ways to cut the budget — including failed motions for an 8-percent tax hike and the full 18.6 percent.

Miller, who has been the strongest voice for further cuts — “there is plenty of fat in this budget” — advocated for a budget that increases taxes by 8 percent, charging the admin-

istration with figuring out how to make that work, but only Arms supported her proposal.

That would have required cutting 35 of the 126 borough employees, said Lee. “Borough hall would be empty except for managers” if council voted that way, she warned.

Procsal called the impact of Miller’s proposal “catastrophic” for government services.

Councilwoman Rita Paez, who has said the matter is too complex to be dealt with in a single meeting, took the opposite tack. She made a motion to adopt the budget as proposed with the full 18.6 percent tax hike, and use the extra time until Feb. 15 to figure out ways to bring that number down.

But only she and Council President Dan Weand supported that idea.

Arms said he had been told by a downtown merchant that if council hiked taxes by 18 percent, the business would close and move out of town.

It was only then that Flanders unveiled a proposal worked out by the administration, and with which Weand appeared to be familiar, that cut the tax hike by not filling vacant positions.

He said most employees who took advantage of a recent retirement incentive were either in the water or sewer departments — whose budget is balanced and unrelated to the general fund shortfall — or police department.

Three civilian police employees, one records clerk and two processor/dispatchers, have retired.

Police Chief Rick Drumheller said he would makedo by not filling two of those positions — a records clerk and dispatcher — even though they watch the cameras and are back-up for officers who are attacked putting prisoners into lock-up, a common occurrence and which he characterized as compromising officer’s safety.

Additionally, by not filling the assistant borough manager’s position and the assistant public works director post proposed — and by eliminating all but one contributions to area organizations like the Visiting Nurse Association and the senior center — the tax hike could be brought down to 12.99 percent, Flanders said.

The one contribution that was retained is the money provided each year to the Pottstown Area Industrial Development agency, or PAID, Pottstown’s chief economic development arm.

Councilman Joe Kirkland — who repeatedly expressed frustration that cost-cutting ideas he had suggested at last week’s meeting were not fully explored, saying “it’s like I wasn’t even here” — then made a motion to push that tax hike down to 12 percent.

It was this motion that attracted three other votes — from Weand, Paez and Councilwoman Carol Kulp.

“It will be up to me to figure out that final 1 percent,” said Flanders.

Kirkland and Weand also emphasized that council will take advantage of a quirk in the borough code that, in a local election year like 2017, allows the next council to re-open the 2018 budget and make changes.

Despite the fact that there will be only one new member of council — Donald Lebedynsky, who replaces Miller — Weand pledged to appoint Kirkland and a few others to a task force find a way to drive the tax hike “down to single digits.”

Borough Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. told council the borough code gives the new council until Feb. 15 to make changes to the budget.