The Sanatoga Post

SANATOGA PA – Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township‘s 2011 budget was unanimously approved Thursday night (Dec. 16, 2010) by the Board of Commissioners, but not without scoldings from two township residents.

Planning Commissioner William Wolfgang wasn’t happy with what he considered overly generous budgeted raises of 4.25 percent in police salaries and 3 percent in staff salaries. Former Township Commissioner Anthony Doyle again argued the board had pulled too much from fund balance savings, leaving it without sufficient spare cash for future needs.

Under the budget that takes effect Jan. 1:

• No general tax increase. The general fund tax rate levied on real estate within Lower Pottsgrove’s borders remains unchanged for another year. It stays at 1.958 mills, or about $1.96 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.

• Fire services tax rises. Taxpayers’ total township bills will nonetheless go up slightly due to an increase in the fire protection tax collected for services rendered by the Sanatoga and Ringing Hill fire companies. That dedicated tax will rise 6 cents, to a total of .46 mills, or 46 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

• Separately, trash collection fees will go up too, by $12 to a total of $142 a year during 2011, due to an increase built into the township’s contract with hauler J.P. Mascaro And Sons of Norristown PA.

Altogether, on a home in Lower Pottsgrove assessed at $200,000, its owners by year-end 2011 will have paid about $484 in township property taxes, or about $12 more than they did this year.

“I think this is a stab in our backs. I’m really disappointed,” Wolfgang said of the raises, which he claimed should have been renegotiated with police and lowered for staff in light of the shaky economy.

“It’s a legitimate comment,” board President Jonathan Spadt acknowledged. Both the police labor contract and the trash collection contract are due to expire next year, he said, “and we’re trying to do the best we can.” Spadt defended township employees’ raises, however, noting that state regulations had increased their workload. “I don’t dispute they’re not worth it,” Wolfgang countered, “but everybody’s got more work to do.”

Of the cash reserves, Doyle speculated, “if you need another half-million dollars, I don’t know where you’ll come up with it.” Plenty of money remains, Commissioner James Phillips responded, saying he was satisfied that the fund balance had grown to $1.7 million for the start of next year from about $700,000 three years ago.

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

• Lower Pottsgrove Budget Approved, After Some Scolding
• Even With 2011 Transfer, Township Cash Cushion At $1.7M
• 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

Related: (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Dec. 16):

• Lower Pottsgrove Budget Approved, After Some Scolding
• Final OK Expected Tonight on Lower Pottsgrove Budget

SANATOGA PA – Lower Pottsgrove’s 2011 budget is likely to be approved with little fanfare and about as much comment tonight (Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010), as the township Board of Commissioners meets for a final time during 2010 beginning at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA.

The budget calls for no general fund tax increase, but slightly raises taxes for fire protection on a schedule created several years ago. It also significantly increases the fees charged for garbage and waste collection. There have been relatively few public comments expressed to board members about the budget, and even those who offered criticisms also said they were happy the tax rate would remain unchanged.

The budget relies on more than $600,000 of township savings to balance its books in lieu of higher taxes.

Also tonight, the board has scheduled a public hearing during which it will discuss details of its planned acquisition of open space on Rupert Road. A resolution to approve that purchase also is scheduled.

And because this is the board’s close-out meeting, the one where loose ends get tied up and congratulations are offered all ’round for another 12 months of successful governance, commissioners will set their calendar and that for other township boards’ and commissions’ meetings in 2011.

A copy of the commissioners’ agenda is available for download from the township website, here.

SANATOGA PA – An infusion of $621,450 from Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township‘s savings into its 2011 budget makes a general fund tax increase unnecessary for another year, but former Commissioners’ President Tom Troutman last week told the current Board of Commissioners he thinks “that’s an awful lot of money” for budget balancing.

Could be, Jonathan Spadt – a Troutman successor in board presidency – replied, and then added, there’s more where that came from.

Even after what will be Lower Pottsgrove’s second-largest shift of cash from savings to budget revenues during the past five years, Spadt predicted the township will start next year with a fund balance of $1.784 million. The amount is easily higher than a $1.2- to $1.3 million cushion of reserves financial advisers say the township should have on hand to protect its bond ratings.

“We’re still in a very healthy position,” Spadt proclaimed.

Troutman, during the board’s meeting last Monday (Dec. 6, 2010) acknowledged he was pleased that the general property tax rate would remain unchanged. “No tax increase certainly sounds good,” he admitted, but he decried the expected transfer as “a startling number.” Another former board member and Troutman ally, Anthony Doyle, who also was in the meeting audience, lodged essentially the same complaint two weeks earlier.

Spadt dismissed both. “I don’t think sitting on a pile of cash is healthy for the township,” so long as its reserves are sufficient to meet bond rating standards, he said. Those ratings become highly important during 2011, as commissioners will be asked to guarantee a new, $13.7 million loan being sought for sewer system repairs by the Lower Pottsgrove Authority.

Besides, Commissioner James Kaiser noted, the township doesn’t have much choice in opting for a big transfer. “Investments are down everywhere,” he said, and Lower Pottsgrove’s revenues from interest and dividends have fallen like those of other local governments. “There’s no municipality in the state that was prepared for a 30-percent reduction as a loss from investments,” Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway added.

Historically, Lower Pottsgrove has been able to avoid a tax increase over many years by relying on the fund balance, its piggy bank of sorts, to annually balance the books. Besides the $621,450 transfer it plans in 2011, it shifted $760,946 in 2010; $320,234 in 2009; $285,423 in 2008; and $479,243 in 2007, according to township budget documents.

The board is scheduled to meet this Thursday (Dec. 16) at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, for its annual close-out meeting. It’s likely the already tentatively-approved budget will be adopted as final then.

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

• Even With 2011 Transfer, Township Cash Cushion At $1.7M
• 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

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Dec. 6):

• Even With 2011 Transfer, Township Cash Cushion At $1.7M
• Slowing Down In Sanatoga Proposed As A ‘Groovy’ Idea
• With Keim Bridge Out, Signal Coming In To Lower Pottsgrove
• Township OKs New Fire Police Law, Approves Members
• Township, Moyer Estate Settle Late Treasurer’s Accounts
• Commissioners Meet Tonight, With A Busy Agenda

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

North Pleasant View Road entrance to Lower Pottsgrove's Police Department.

SANATOGA PA – Down in Phoenixville, just 13 miles southeast of Sanatoga village, the borough council has ordered its police department to make $200,000 in cuts from next year’s budget. In the opposite direction – only 7 miles north and outside Gilbertsville – New Hanover township supervisors have already laid off one police officer and are considering the possibility of eliminating the entire force.

Between the two sits the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Police Department, with a budget that’s increased every year for the past three years and is expected do so again in 2011.

Police expenses under next year’s tentative general fund budget, approved Nov. 18 (2010) by the Board of Commissioners, total $2.26 million and represent the single largest cost of the municipal government. At the budgeted amount, they will consume 41 percent of Lower Pottsgrove‘s overall $5.39 million spending plan.

The budget is due for commissioners’ final approval next month (December 2010), and budget documents are available now for public inspection during regular business hours at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA. If the budget is finally approved, as seems likely, its policing component will probably sail through untouched.

Why are things different here than elsewhere? Township officials and outside observers offer several reasons:

Chief Michael Shade.

• Commitment and confidence. Anyone who regularly attends the commissioners’ first meeting of any month, at which Police Chief Michael Shade provides a report, can attest that board members openly talk about their commitment to heightened public safety. They also can describe the praise regularly offered for the chief, whom the board likes, respects, and believes is – in the words of Commissioner James Phillips – “doing a great job.”

• Public recognition. Joe Everyman seems to think highly of the department as well. Two out-of-towners penned notes during September, commending Lower Pottsgrove officers for assistance they rendered. The FBI contacted Shade in August, inviting his second-in-command, Lt. Michael Foltz, to attend the agency’s prestigious national academy. A father in July thanked the department for saving his 18-year-old son’s life in a medical emergency. Shade, who is as politically astute as the board he works for, ensures commissioners are copied on all such correspondence. There’s something good in nearly every month’s packet.

• Earlier cost-cutting. Although it includes a 4.25-percent contractually mandated salary increase for patrolmen that alone adds $43,012 to personnel costs, the department’s total 2011 budget is only $37,578 higher (less than 2 percent) than its 2010 budget of $2.22 million.

• A big piggy bank. To support public safety and all other components next year, without raising accompanying property taxes, the board will prop up the general budget with $621,450 of savings from the township’s fund balance. 2011 marks the fifth consecutive year commissioners have relied on such unreserved cash; they’ve pumped a total of $2,467,296 into Lower Pottsgrove’s budgets since 2007. Few other townships have that kind of money handy.

The police budget includes salary and overtime costs amounting to about $1.42 million. Of that, $1.13 million is for patrolmen’s salaries; $100,862, chief’s salary; $89,644, administrative assistance and clerical help; $80,000, overtime; and $18,200, longevity payments. The department employs 17 full-time officers, according to the township website.

Varied insurance costs eat up almost $405,000 of the police budget. Of that, $308,500 is for hospitalization; $48,762, worker’s compensation; $17,603, liability insurance; $13,479, disability insurance; $11,739, vehicle insurance; $3,175, life insurance; and $1,575, unemployment compensation.

Also during 2011, the department is prepared to spend about $60,000 – $20,000, or 33 percent, more than the $40,000 it budgeted in each of three previous years – on special counsel and legal fees. The extra sum includes what Shade thinks it will cost for Lower Pottsgrove’s finest to become a professionally accredited law enforcement agency.

Only 18 of more than 50 Montgomery County law enforcement agencies are accredited so far, according to the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission.

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

• 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

SANATOGA PA – The annual budget package for Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township actually consists of six separate budgets:

• the general fund, for daily township operations;
• the sewer fund and the sewer capital fund, for operations of the Township Authority;
• street lights, because a separate fee is imposed upon property owners who benefit from street lighting;
• the state fund, which covers costs and reimbursements for township maintenance (primarily snow plowing) of state-owned roads;
• and park and recreation operations.

Below is a summary, prepared by township staff, of the tentative 2011 township budget(s), as a well as a comparison to adopted budgets of the previous four years (2007-2010). It’s intended to give the township Board of Commissioners and the public an overall idea of what it costs to run the municipal government, and it also offers a hint at trends from previous years.

The budget is due for commissioners’ final approval next month (December 2010), and budget documents are available now for public inspection during regular business hours at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA.

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

• 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

A J.P. Mascaro and Sons trash truck.

POTTSTOWN PA – A number of Lower Pottsgrove property owners already think of paying for trash collection as throwing money away, but they may be unaware just how much cash gets figuratively hauled to the dump annually.

During 2011, according to explanations that accompany next year’s tentative general fund budget, the township expects to pay a total of $836,139 to Norristown-based hauler J.P. Mascaro and Sons for its collection services. They include once-weekly trash pick-up, weekly recycling pick-up, and monthly leaf pick-up for 3,016 household units.

That amounts to $274.94 per unit, enough for 11 bags of groceries at $25 per bag, or about 94 gallons of gasoline at today’s (Friday, Nov. 26, 2010) pumped rate of $2.93 per gallon, or $1.77 per bag of trash … assuming Mascaro collects three bags from each unit weekly over 52 weeks.

The line item for “solid waste / trash collection fee” is part of the budget package on which the Board of Commissioners expects to vote, and probably will approve, during December. The budget itself carries no property tax increase, commissioners have proudly proclaimed, but they also acknowledge that trash collection fees will rise $12 per unit next year if the budget is accepted “as is.”

Each unit will be billed in 2011 at the rate of $142, to be collected in two semi-annual payments of $71 each. However, that’s only 51 percent of the actual cost of trash collection.

The township subsidizes the rest in its budget. Michele Christman, one of two township bookkeepers – who at this time of year also merits the title “finance director” – estimates the deficit between what Lower Pottsgrove bills for trash services and what it may actually pay could run as high as $441,000.

Next year’s subsidy in the balanced tentative budget is only $410,000, so apparently savings are anticipated to be wrung from somewhere. Still, it represents 7.5 percent of the overall $5.39 million spending plan. Historically, the township budgeted $290,000 for 2008, and paid out $310,652; $290,000 for 2009 as well, and paid even more, $325,471; and in the current year it budgeted $375,100 but is projected to spend slightly less, at $370,000.

It will cost Lower Pottsgrove $15,000 just to send out next year’s trash bills, budget notes indicate. And, yes, some of them will end up in the trash. A small percentage of those billed try to skip on payment, and the township takes enforcement action against them.

Lower Pottsgrove’s five-year contract with Mascaro, which ends next year, has been a source of irritation to some in the township.

Businessman and township resident Mike Murray, managing partner of MJ Murray Associates, last week commented on a related Post article and said “It amazes me how we continue to pay higher trash rates for less and worse service. Cans are thrown all over, trash is dropped consistently, and half the time they pick up only what they feel like.”

And township resident William Wolfgang, whose household is small and recycles heavily, during October told commissioners that “getting rid of garbage is just costing too much.” Rather than $1.77 per trash bag, Wolfgang guesses his actual cost is about $4. ““I think that’s an awful amount to be paying for garbage,” he said.

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

• 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

POTTSTOWN PA – Property taxes levied by Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township on real estate within its borders would remain unchanged for another year, and carry no planned increase, under a $5.39 million tentative 2011 general fund budget being released this morning (Monday, Nov. 23, 2010) at 8 a.m. for public inspection and review.

Taxpayers’ total township bills, however, will nonetheless go up slightly, because Lower Pottsgrove would collect a higher fire protection tax for services rendered by the Sanatoga and Ringing Hill fire companies.

If finally adopted next month (December 2010) by the Board of Commissioners, the township base tax rate will remain stable at 1.958 mills, or about $1.96 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. The dedicated fire services tax would rise 6 cents, to a total of .46 mills, or 46 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

Altogether, on a home in Lower Pottsgrove assessed at $200,000, its owners by year-end 2011 will have paid about $484 in township property taxes, or about $12 more than they did this year.

Separately, trash collection fees during 2011 will go up too, by $12 to a total of $142 a year, due to an increase built into the township’s contract with hauler J.P. Mascaro And Sons of Norristown PA.

To make the budget numbers work, commissioners plan to:

• Tap a piggy bank of unreserved funds. Commissioners will transfer $621,450 from township savings to avoid a tax increase, just as they’ve done in amounts ranging from $285,423 to $760,946 since 2007.
• Expect an increase in earned income tax (EIT) revenues, by roughly $330,000 to a total of $1.6 million. The amount is significantly higher than the corresponding EIT revenue of budgets in any year since 2007. At the same time, according to township Manager Rodney Hawthorne, the budget “assumes a no-growth economy.” During the past three years, budgeted EIT ranged from a low of $1.27 million (2010) to a high of $1.5 million (2009).
• Reduce overall expenses. The tentative 2011 budget of $5,399,617 is fractionally smaller, $40,022 less, than the 2010 budget.

All figures cited are included in printed budget documents unanimously approved last Thursday (Nov. 18) by commissioners. Coming editions of The Post will offer expanded stories on various aspects of the budget. The budget in its entirety is available for public inspection weekdays during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA.

Related (to Lower Pottsgrove Township’s 2011 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

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Nov. 18):

• No Change In Town’s 2011 Base Tax Rate, But Bills To Rise Slightly
• Legal Fight Shapes Up Over Signs In Lower Pottsgrove
• Township Thanks Dailey For 23 Years Of Volunteer Service
• ‘No Parking’ Zone Approved On North Adams Street