13.8% Increase All But Confirmed

Council held a special Finance Committee meeting on Monday night to discuss the proposed 13.8% increase in taxes for '09. After four hours of discussion, the increase remains.

For more, see the posts on both Councilman Senley's and Councilman Buckwalter's blog

Senley
From Your Finance Chair ...

Buckwalter
13.8% Tax Increase Passes Committee
The 2009 Budget - What Happened, What Didn’t

PASD Superintendent Resigns

From today's Phoenix:
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Dr. Maria M. Schwab, who began her work as Superintendent of Schools of the Phoenixville Area School District only in July, has resigned her position, effective Saturday, November 8.

At a special meeting of the Board of School Directors held Thursday evening, a separation agreement between the District and Dr. Schwab was approved by a 7-2 vote, with Keith Wickstrom and Joshua Gould in dissent.

In a subsequent action, the Board unanimously approved the appointment, also effective Saturday, of Dr. Maryjane Richmond, currently Assistant Superintendent, as Acting Superintendent.

A statement on the matter was read publicly by Board President Mark Casaday. “Effective November 8, 2008, Dr. Maria Schwab ends her employment [with PASD] as a result of her voluntary resignation. We wish Dr. Schwab well. …
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Read the full article here.

Phoenixville Proposing at 18.3% Tax Hike for Next Year

At this week's council meeting, borough manager Jean Krack laid out the proposed budget for 2009 and with it proposed an increase of 18.3% to our property taxes. The increase reflects an increase in expenses of 3.95%. The rest of the increase is due to a sharp decline in revenues to the tune of $816,000.

According to the math done by Councilman Buckwalter, half of this increase can be attributed to the new contract that was agreed to between the borough and the CDC.

According to a post on the Phoenix by finance chair Jeff Senley, "Council will now re-examine the budget at a special meeting of the Finance Committee on Monday, November 17 at 7:00 PM. The intent of the meeting is to cut spending in the least invasive way to allow the Borough Manager to continue working toward his goals."

More to come...

Source: The Phoenix

Clarifying a few points

I supported Mr. Senley in his decision to vote against the CDC contract because I felt it was unnecessary for we, the taxpayers, to bare the full burden of the deal. If you listen to Jeff, he is not anti-CDC. He felt, and I believe rightly so, that asking the tax payers to foot the bill in its entirety was wrong, especially considering the financial times we find ourselves in. I, like many of you, do not want to see the CDC relationship ended as I think it has helped to turn around the town, however I think a much more fair solution would be to have a mixture of private and public funding for the contract.

I will admit to being highly disappointed in Jeff for not making the initial vote on this topic, especially considering he was beating the drum against the measure on his blog up to and including the day of the vote. I applaud Jeff for making a big enough issue about this to garner a second vote. Unfortunately, that too failed so we are left with our current situation.

This was the point of the $0.50/week post. If you listen to some of the opponents to the CDC contract, you'd be inclined to believe that by agreeing to fund the CDC contract, the Council was imposing an enormous financial burden on the taxpayers for little to no measurable result. While your opinion on the CDC and its director may vary, the fact is that the increase as a result of the contract is simply not that much money. While I certainly have empathy for those on a fixed income and understand that any increase in living expenses for them are tough to swallow, I at the same time feel that $0.50/week is not an excessive amount of money to ask to help support an entity that, at least in theory, is in place to help make the town we live in a better place to spend our time. It is also worth mentioning that the $0.50/week number was used to help make the math easier. The fact is, only houses appraised at $127k or higher would pay that much. Its important to keep in mind that the appraised value of a property is well below the market value. My suspicion is that most who are on a fixed income do not live in a property with an assessed value this high and thus will be paying even less than this. For instance, a house appraised at $90,080 would have an increase of $17.63/year or $0.34/week (#'s courtesy Councilman Buckwalter's blog using Councilman Ciruelos' property values).

I am more than happy to discuss this further but please keep it on topic and try to add something new to the discussion rather than regurgitation the same comments that have made up a majority of the comments on this and other blogs.

$0.50/week

For all of the talk about taxes going up as a result of the new CDC contract, the net result is an estimated increase of $0.50/week for each property in Phoenixville. Councilman Buckwalter did the math on his blog and, as he has been one of the opponents to the new contract, I have no reason to doubt his numbers. So, for all of the talk of doom and gloom and how extending the CDC contract will place an unneeded burden on the tax payers of Phoenixville, it boils down to $0.50/week.

Kendrick's case to be heard by PA Supreme Court

As you may or may not be aware, Councilman Kendrick Buckwalter has a civil complaint against the Borough stemming from a decision made in December of 2006 by his fellow councilmen to forgo their $200/month 'salary'. The decision was first suggested by Councilman Kirkner in light of the fact that the borough was facing a steep tax hike and he felt that giving up this monthly salary was the least that could be done. The majority of his peers agreed. The decision, however, was objected to my Mr. Buckwalter as unconstitutional, something that, at least on the surface, seems to be a valid argument.

Mr. Buckwalter has already had his case rejected by the Court of Common Pleas as well as the Commonwealth Court. Undeterred, Buckwalter and his attorney Richard Breuer appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court who has agreed to hear the case.

Regardless of whether or not Mr. Buckwalter is correct regarding the legality of the pay cut, the question arises as to whether this was something that really needed to be addressed. Mr. Buckwalter has been quoted as saying, "I certainly didn't do this because I personally have something at stake here. Obviously, it puts me in an awkward position. But I thought that this was bad public policy in the first place. I filed the complaint because it's a constitutional issue."

While I don't disagree that the Borough should make decisions that are in line with PA Laws, my feeling is that this is a waste of taxpayer money. Considering the fact that Mr. Buckwalter has come out strongly against the Borough's spending and its effect on our taxes, it seems odd that he would have taken this to court. Not only that, he continues to appeal decisions made by the lower courts, adding significantly to the Borough's legal bills. And, in the end, even if the Supreme Court does side with him, what ultimately will come out of it? Put an extra $2400 in his pocket, something he indicates isn't a big deal to him in the first place?

Read more in yesterday's Phoenix article

Parking Authority OK'd By Council

As I am sure many of you are aware by now, council voted last night to approve the Parking Authority by a 5-3 measure. What this will eventually mean to our town remains to be seen, but the early money has a parking garage being one of the main goals of said authority. The first step, according to what I have heard and more or less confirmed by Councilman Senley is that parking meters will be installed throughout the downtown area, extending who knows how far into the residential neighborhoods.

Councilman Buckwalter has a list of the appointed members to the authority. Four of the five are residents of Phoenixville and thus would be directly effected by any tax hikes that come as a result of decisions they may make. The fifth, Conner Cummings, is one of the owners of Molly Maguires.

The only thing that can be done at this point to prevent the Authority from becoming a reality is for Mayor Scoda to veto the council's decision. Should he do that, it would take a 6-2 vote by council to overturn his decision.