SANATOGA PA – We’re not alone.

No, this isn’t about life on other worlds, but it does reference something almost everyone wishes was just as alien … taxes.

Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township has approved a 2011 tentative budget of $5.39 million that avoids a property tax increase for the general fund, which covers usual township operations. However, it carries a 6-cent increase in the fire services tax, to a total of .46 mills, or 46 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value; and it raises the annual cost of trash collection by $12 per household unit to a total of $142.

Some surrounding and nearby municipalities also have announced they may be able to avoid a general fund property tax increase next year: Limerick, Upper Pottsgrove, New Hanover, and East Coventry among them. Others haven’t been as fortunate.

Lower Pottsgrove commissioners are due to consider final adoption of the budget during their Dec. 16 meeting at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA. Meanwhile, to offer some perspective on what other area municipalities are facing, consider these:

• Proposed Montco budget would avert tax increase (Philadelphia PA Inquirer)
  Despite warnings of tax increases as high as 11 percent, Montgomery County (PA) posted a proposed 2011 budget Wednesday (Dec. 1, 2010) that would hold the line on new levies. But it wouldn’t come without a cost.

• Sewer rates to go up 11% while taxes stay same (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  Although property taxes will not increase in the $1.6 million tentative budget on which the Spring City (PA) Borough Council is expected to vote, anyone who flushes a toilet will pay about $40 more per year starting in July.

• Royersford budget proposal would increase taxes 17.5% (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  Royersford (PA) Borough property taxes would increase by more than 17.5 percent under the draft $3.4 million budget Borough Council was due to review Nov. 30. Manager Michael Leonard said the 1 mill tax hike being contemplated is due largely to the necessity of making up a $400,000 hole in the budget.

• Limerick dips into reserve fund to avoid tax hike (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  Limerick (PA) Township officials have decided to use more than three-quarters of a million dollars in reserve funding to keep the $13.7 million township 2011 budget from requiring a tax hike next year.

• New Hanover lays off cop to avoid raising property tax (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  New Hanover (PA) Township taxpayers will enjoy another year without a tax increase in 2011 — but this time it comes at a cost — a cost paid by the township’s newest police officer.

• Upper Pottsgrove holding line on taxes for 2011 (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  There will be no property tax hike or increase in sewer rates under the 2011 budget adopted by Upper Pottsgrove (PA) Township commissioners. If unchanged, it will be the second consecutive year that the township has adopted a budget with no tax increases.

• Pottstown Authority increases base fee for water by 40% (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  The base rate that water customers pay, no matter how much water they use, will increase by 40 percent under the $5.9 million water budget adopted in a 3-1 vote by the Pottstown Borough Authority. The current base rate is $25 per quarter. Under the adopted budget that will increase to $35 per quarter or $140 per year.

• Pottstown Borough Budget Meeting (Roy’s Rants)
  Pottstown (PA) Borough Council on Tuesday (Nov. 30, 2010) unanimously approved the 2011 tentative budget with a 3.1-percent tax increase. The increase equates to $25.66 per year on a home assessed at $85,000. A $177,000 deficit makes this necessary. Final budget numbers could change with further cost-cutting or asset sales.

• Residents don’t want police cuts in budget (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  It was standing-room-only inside Phoenixville (PA) Borough Hall as law enforcement officials and residents came out in full force to inform Borough Council of their support for local police. The council’s finance committee asked the police department to trim its budget by $200,000, which could mean the potential loss of two officers.

• No property tax hike in new East Coventry budget proposal (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  The 2011 budget presented to the East Coventry (PA) Township Board of Supervisors does not call for a property tax increase; however, working people in town will see a bigger bite out of their paychecks as a result of an open space referendum passed in the general election.

• Amity considers sewage fee increase (Community-Buzz.com)
  Amity (PA) Township supervisors approved advertising their new budget, which required $140,000 from the general fund to make up for a shortfall. They also considered, but did not act on, a sewage fee increase of $5 a quarter to generate additional money for the sewer fund.

Related (to Lower Pottsgrove Township’s 2011 budget):

• Municipal Budget Woes All Over The Local Map
• To Protect And Serve Cots Township $2.26M In 2011
• Five Years Of Lower Pottsgrove Budgets At A Glance
• Garbage Claims 7.5% Of Lower Pottsgrove’s Budget
• No Change In Town’s 2011 Base Tax Rate, But Bills To Rise Slightly
• State of Lower Pottsgrove’s Budget? Hurting, Not Wounded
• Pass The Excedrin. It’s Budget Time In Lower Pottsgrove