Friday, November 9, 2012
The Hatboro Borough Council, during a Thursday budget workshop, began reviewing the borough's $4.6 million spending plan for 2013.
During a two-hour budget meeting Thursday, the Hatboro Borough Council began poring through its 30-page spending to see what adjustments are needed to approve a balanced budget by year's end. At the outset, the roughly $4.6 million budget notes a $56,715 shortfall. But, Council President John Zygmont said that figure is based on revenue from a yet-to-be-approved $52 per year local services tax - a possible replacement for the borough's $10 per year occupational privilege tax. Without the local services tax, Zygmont said Hatboro takes in about $30,000 from its occupational privilege tax. The higher wage tax for people who work in Hatboro would mean about $50,000 more in revenue, or $80,000 in all. Zygmont suggested subtracting out the …
Friday, November 2, 2012
Commissioners say they're still dealing with 'omissions of decisions' and 'lies' built into the financial situation they inherited from the previous county administration.
Montgomery County is well into the process of assembling its 2013 operating budget, but it's still having some trouble reckoning with its 2012 operating budget. In presenting his third quarterly budget update, county chief financial officer Uri Monson said that the county's operating deficit had widened during the third quarter, from $1.7 million to about $3.9 million. The deficit remains down from the $10 million figure identified shortly after the current administration took office in January. Monson placed the primary blame for the third quarter increase on state funding cuts for mental and behavioral health services, an explanation with which Commissioner Bruce Castor took issue. While acknowledging the state cuts, Castor, who has …
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The council is trying to balance its 2012 budget, which now has a projected $225,000 deficit.
The “suspension” of Hatboro’s D.A.R.E. program, fewer streetlights and a reduction in street sweeping were among the items the borough council approved Monday as it reigns in a $225,000 budget shortfall. And while officials imply a tax increase could be inevitable, council members are combing through the roughly $4 million spending plan to see what reductions could help limit what is now projected to be a 13 percent tax boost. At that rate, officials said the owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $125,000 would pay roughly $100 more in taxes. While officials have more work to do before a balanced budget can be adopted by the Dec. 31 deadline, progress is being made as evidenced in the approximate $60,000 in cuts made during …
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Hatboro officials asked department heads to eliminate 'non-essential' programs to help close a 2012 budget deficit.
As Hatboro officials work to close a more than $350,000 budget shortfall, the council on Monday night heard proposed cuts from department heads totaling $42,000. Among the potential cuts was Hatboro’s D.A.R.E. program, which provides drug prevention and awareness to school-aged kids. Hatboro Police Chief James Gardner said the police department has taught D.A.R.E. for 20 years, along with Horsham Township Police Department and he Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department to offer educational programs to Hatboro-Horsham School District children. “Right now it’s just conceptual,” Gardner said of the possible cut, adding that he hopes the borough's involvement in the program can continue. “DARE was previously at least partially funded by a state…
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Montgomery County Commissioner James Matthews said higher taxes are needed or county services will suffer.
Though not exactly on the agenda for the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners' meeting Wednesday, an impromptu discussion of the county's current budget situation arose, as did the possibility of a tax hike. The county's current budget status was raised by Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, who took the opportunity to chide fellow Commissioner Bruce Castor for his comments during his campaign about the county's perceived budget woes. "I'm disappointed in the public comments and the lack of public understanding with the county's [current] financial situation," said Hoeffel. He suggested that the commissioners had neglected to answer allegations about the county's poor fiscal outlook raised in the media during the current election because they …
Robert Applegarth
1:04 pm on Saturday, November 10, 2012
Bill Tompkins; Thanks for your response. I was only addressing the OPT which was deducted from my first paycheck each year every place I worked. I am unfamiliar with the Local Services Tax you mentioned in your response. How is that tax generated and how much money is expected to be collected? more ›