Fair funding for boroughs?

We constantly hear about fair funding for needy school districts, but nothing about fair funding for needy boroughs.

That’s because there isn’t any. The state provides grants and other modest funding to local municipalities, but nothing on the scale of school district subsidies. Moreover, state and county grants are handed out regardless of need.

Over the last 70 years, the middle class and the affluent have either abandoned or simply avoided traditional cities, boroughs and towns, leaving an increasingly poor population behind.

The percentage of low income students in Pottstown schools has increased from about 20 percent in the early 1970s to about 70 percent today.

Pottstown has twice as many lowincome students as Pottsgrove and five times as many as Owen J. Roberts.

Student poverty reflects families in poverty. That places a financial burden on borough government, not just the school district.

Low housing prices, public transportation, and an abundance of government and private agencies has made Pottstown a magnet for the poor.

Pottstown has about 440 Section 8 subsidized rentals. With less than 3 percent of the county’s population, Pottstown has nearly 20 percent of its low income vouchers.

Meanwhile, about 20 percent of all Pottstown real estate is tax exempt —

including its two most valuable properties, The Hill School and Pottstown Hospital.

Social service agencies like Creative Health, the Pottstown Cluster, the YWCA, and the Salvation Army are also tax exempt.

Pottstown’s tax base has been shrinking for years. This is one reason why we have among the highest real estate taxes in the commonwealth.

To help all our residents, including our children, the borough government could put extra funding to better use than the school district .

For example, while Pottstown school buildings and grounds are in excellent shape, the borough’s water and sewer infrastructure needs millions in repairs.

Pottstown has miles of rutted and potholed streets that should be resurfaced. Few of its alleys are paved and none are maintained.

All sidewalks on school district property are code compliant. Sidewalks elsewhere in the borough are lifted and deteriorated.

The borough has lost hundreds of street trees in recent years that have not been replaced. Existing trees are badly in need of maintenance.

Downtown streets and sidewalks are littered with trash. With extra funding, the borough could pay a contractor to clean it up regularly.

A lot of school district spending gets nebulous results. Increased borough spending could make a discernable improvement in the quality of life for residents of all ages in Pottstown.

Tom Hylton is a member of the Pottstown School Board. However, the views expressed are his alone and not the board’s.

Clients of the Pottstown Cluster line up for free food at the Cluster’s office and distribution center at King and Franklin streets. The region’s poor and troubled are concentrated in Pottstown. Their needs weigh heavily on Pottstown Borough taxpayers, who must pay for police and social services.

Commentary by Tom Hylton