No Tax Increase
Friday, January 1st, 2010NORRISTOWN, PA — The Montgomery County Commissioners adopted a 407.7 million budget with no tax increase for 2010.
The owner of a home assessed at $168,788, the county average, will continue to pay $454.88 for the county portion of their real estate taxes next year.
The tax rate for the County portion of residents’ real estate taxes will remain 2.695 mills. A mill is $1 per $1,000 of assessed value.
The Commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the spending plan. Commissioners Chairman Jim Matthews and Vice Chairman Joseph Hoeffel voted in favor. Commissioner Bruce L. Castor, Jr. voted against.
The budget includes a number of austerity measures taken to close a large gap caused by declining revenue and increased expenses. Those measures included no pay increase for County employees and having employees pay 5 percent of the cost of their health insurance premiums.
The budget was also reduced by outsourcing day care services for the children of County employees at two locations, enhanced energy efficiencies and extending the term of open space borrowings.
The budget is funded in part through a $10 million fund balance appropriation. The fund balance is essentially an emergency reserve fund that, through careful monitoring of spending and cost cutting, the Commissioners will maintain at $35.5 million in 2010.
