Facing what was arguably the toughest challenge of their tumultuous four-year reign, balancing the 2012 budget, the famously bickering Board of Commissioners of Montgomery County passed a budget that preserved a panopoly of vital services that were said to be at risk with a 17 percent tax increase generating $26 million in additional revenue. What’s more, they did it civilly and unanimously, even congratulating each other for a job well done.
The budget restores full funding for the Montgomery County Community College (MCCC), the Montgomery County/Norristown Library and Elmwood Park Zoo. It also restores funds for the parks and heritage services department and planning commission, which were slated for extinction, at a 2.5 percent reduction from 2011 spending levels. Most basic county administrative functions, including the row officers – no exceptions for the District Attorney’s office – are taking hits of 2.5 percent. Some layoffs, likely less than 50, are expected.
Under the adopted budget, the average homeowner will pay an additional $77 in 2012 for the county portion of their real estate taxes. The owner of a home assessed at $168,296, the county average, will see the county portion of their real estate tax bill go from $453 to $530 next year.
In the space of a month and with a staggering diversion in the form of the arrest of Matthews on charges of perjury before a grand jury, the commissioners went from disarray and polarization to agreeing to decisions adding some $28.1 million to the original no tax increase-budget. Overall, the 2012 budget shows an increase of $13.5 million, or 3.3 percent over 2011, which includes a two percent pay increase that takes effect in July. County employees have not received a pay increase in three years.
The bare bones budget proposal posted in late November called for drastic cuts that included eliminating $2.3 million in funding for the Montgomery County/Norristown Library and reducing the MCCC’s funding by $2.5 million. More than 300 people showed up for a public hearing on the proposed budget to advocate for restored funding, especially for parks and heritage services, MCCC, the library system and the planning commission. In addition, more than 5,000 comments were submitted through the county’s web site and via email, plus an additional 3,500 comment cards, several petitions and comments on Facebook.
Although the commissioners did not express relief that they would never have to meet again on the dais of the board room at One Montgomery Plaza, it is hard not to speculate that that sunny reality for the three political combatants may have played a role in bringing together current Chair Joe Hoeffel and members Jim Matthews and Bruce Castor for a final collaboration resulting in what Hoeffel called a “reasonable, rational and fair budget.” A new Democratic administration led by Josh Shapiro of Abington and Leslie Richards of Whitemarsh will be taking over in 2012, with Republican Bruce Castor staying on in the minority seat.
Departments and functions that that are getting increases include the county corrections facility in Eagleville and child care and delinquent care in the corrections budget. Drug and alcohol and behavioral health programs and the health department combined went up about $3 million and child welfare went up almost $2 million. Debt service was up $4.3 million, tax refunds (resulting in lost revenues) were up about $1 million and the pay increase accounted for $1.4 million. The corrections facility, which just added a $28 million dormitory wing to reduce overcrowding, will receive $1.5 million in new funds, primarily for additional staffing, more than $1 million less than requested. Only parts of the new dormitory may operate in 2012 as a result.
“I believe that this budget is fair to taxpayers, fair to county government itself, fair to county employees and most importantly, fair to those who depend upon our services and to those that enjoy our amenities,” Hoeffel said. “This budget keeps the faith. I want to commend my colleagues. I’m very pleased that this was a unanimous decision, and there was a lot of good faith efforts made and principled compromising going on on the part of my colleagues to make this happen. They acted in the best interests of this county and I’m pleased to be part of it.”
Hoeffel then went out of his way to praise Castor’s position not to take a pledge to not raise taxes during the recent campaign. “In my view, Commissioner Castor’s campaign worries about not increasing taxes have been justified by what we saw when the no tax increase-budget was presented to us. We looked into that abysss with its draconian cuts and the three of us felt that it simply wasn’t in the best interest of the county . . . I think that the proof is in the pudding that his position has been vindicated.”
Hoeffel also called Matthews, who he teamed up with to forge a bipartisan governing majority for the last four years, “an effective advocate for the things you care about,” especially the community college and the courts.
He then briefly reviewed the county’s recent financial history, saying that the use of the fund balance to cover costs over the last three years, rather than raise taxes, was justified, in conjunction with budgetary belt tightening. The fund balance is not employed to cover any expenses in the 2012 budget, which may be a key factor if Montco maintains its Aaa rating for the coming year.
Matthews then said of Castor, his bitter foe over the last four years, “I think that all credit for unanimity goes to Mr. Castor.”
“And the bottom line is,” said Hoeffel, “unlike Washington and unlike Harrisburg, we are bipartisan, we are unanimous and we’re making the government work.”
Castor said that once it was determined by a “quirk” in the law that the county budget could not be reopened by the new board, the tax increase was mandatory. “I don’t see any other way around it based on my knowledge of how county government functions . . . I am loathe to vote for a tax increase, but I simply don’t see how we can continue the services that Montgomery County is required to provide, should provide and is expected to provide even with the cuts that we have imposed without some tax increase.” He then congratulated Hoeffel as chair for organizing the process that led to a unanimous agreement.
In his closing remarks, Matthews sought to justify a personnel decision that has been subject to criticism by the grand jury report, the hiring of his personal secretary, Eleanor Schneider, for human resources director. The report called her unqualified based on her lack of knowledge of basic contracting policies and procedures. He said she’d done “an excellent job in HR and that the county “would lose quite an asset” when she leaves. He reiterated to Schneider, who was in the room, his position that “you were best for that job.” He then praised longtime county reporter Peg Gibbons of The Intelligencer and formerly of The Times-Herald, for being as “capable” a reporter as there is in any county courthouse. He also addressed the Inquirer reporter, Jeremy Roebuck, asking him to “take back to your editors my deepest appreciation” for the paper’s three endorsements of his candidacy for county commissioner.
Finally, Matthews offered a up a rambling history of county government, saying that back in the 1930′s, county roads were managed to keep 300 jobs on the county payroll and that while there once may have been “ghost employees, those days are gone. Everybody in this county works. There are no set-ups here.”
Matthews said that in his three terms on the board, he and his colleagues reduced the size of government. “You can’t say that about the state, you can’t say that about the federal government. We took down the size of government by 12 to 13 percent over the last 12 years.” In justifying the tax increase he had just supported, he argued that county residents benefited from the equivalent of a “10-year tax holiday until today.” He said the increase amounted to 75 cents a month over the last 10 years, or about $80 per household over that period “to support the finest county government in the Commonwealth with the best workers.”
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