Tax Hike Included in New Budget For Montgomery County, Pa.
By Brad Segall
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- Montgomery County, Pa. has a budget for next year, a $417-million spending plan that hikes county property taxes by 17 percent, the first increase in a decade.
The county commissioners had been grappling with the possibility of significant funding cuts, but in the end they compromised and passed a spending plan that hikes taxes about $77 per year for the average homeowner.
County departments are getting 2½ percent less, and that could translate into some job losses.
Commissioner Bruce Castor, a Republican, believes it's the best they could have achieved.
"County tax, obviously, is the smallest of the bites that people who own property get, after school district and township, but it still will hurt. But it's something that was necessary to keep county government functioning at any level," Castor told KYW Newsradio today.
There will be funding for the county community college, the libraries, and the Elmwood Park Zoo. County employees will get a two-percent raise, but it doesn't take effect until July.
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