It is looking alot like Christmas, and in the spirit of the "giving" season, Borough Council adopted the budget yesterday asking Phoenixville property owners to give an approximate total of $200 more in fees and taxes in 2011.
Each of the borough departments were asked to cut their budgets substantially and most complied. The same request made to the Police Department would have resulted in laying off two Phoenixville police officers, a move which elicited negative responses from many concerned citizens and supporters.
At the prospect of losing even one officer in the department, Council opted to re-instate the additional measure of a per-capita tax of $10 adding an additional revenue stream to cover the costs of the upcoming year's budget.
Phoenixville taxpayers will see the following for 2011.
1) A 10% property tax increase;
2) $10 per-capita tax;
3) combined 20% increase in water/sewer bills;
4) $5 "infrastructure" fee in water/sewer bills per quarter for a total of $20 annually;
5) $5 increase in trash fees per quarter for a total increase of $20 annually.
A quick calculation on a borough home assessed around $100,000 results in an approximate increase of $200 for property owners.
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5 comments:
The 2% of the population/petition signers asking for no police layoffs, four council members voting approval, the mayor and police union members should be billed the budget amount in question. I for one cannot afford another $200+ per year while living exclusively on Social Security. They might as well file the lien now because that's we're we're headed or maybe they can tell me which month I should'nt eat?
Get the bar owners to chip in.
With no increase in Social Security Anonymous 5:38 p.m., for the second year in a row, and rumors (or fact?) that some of our senior citizens are facing a 4.4% increase in Part B premium payments, it seems the ability to retire with dignity and with some security in one's home is no longer a viable plan.
Even more sacrifices may be required in the future.
The following snips are part to an article which appeared at the link below:
(Federal Reserve Chairman Ben) "Bernanke claims to be concerned primarily about two things: unemployment and deflation.
He says it could take 4 to 5 years for the U.S. to get back to a "more normal unemployment rate of 5% or 6%".
"..once you account for everybody who has given up looking for work as well as everybody who is underemployed, (unemployment) is already about 22%."
http://inflation.us/bernanke60minutes.html
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Just not a good outlook, Anonymous.
Karen, per the "Anonymous" posting on 12/22/10 at 5:38 pm "tell me which month I shouldn't eat", this is the very reason I could not vote for it. Our society is seeing 1 in 10 every people not working, Peco is de-regulating, gas is back to over $3.00 per gallon and our seniors are seeing no increase in social security for 2nd straight year (while Medicare premiums continue to skim away and what they have left) and you want me to vote for a 10% tax increase? Are you kidding me? While I am cautious to the need of public safety, there has to be a balance. (For the record, the fire dept cut over 10% from their budget to help the taxpayers out and no one said a word)
Fiscal responsibility has to be job one, if you don't have it you should not spend it. We are living in some trying times.
To Dave Gautreau -
Yep, for us taxpayers it's "If you don't have it, don't spend it"
For the Borough it's "If you don't have it, raise taxes and get it".
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