Tax Increase? You Bet.
In any election — no matter if its local, state, or national — taxes are always a favorite issue for politicians. The Sinking Spring municipal elections will be no exception. It is somewhat of a minor miracle that the issue hasn’t come up yet, and its probably because what voters would be told wouldn’t be so popular.
Putting it simply — your taxes are likely to go up next year.
This year, the borough is sitting precariously close to running a deficit. Part of this has to do with some questionable decisions on creating the budget in the first place. $100,000 in projected grant monies were added to the income, most of which has not materialized.
We cannot necessarily blame the borough however — part of this money is being held up by the budget mess in Harrisburg. At the same time, we balanced our budget on money that wasn’t there in the first place. Thus, now we are faced with losing money as a result.
Secondly, the state of the economy is still poor which in turn is putting a strain on incoming revenue to the borough coffers. This perfect storm of events is adding up, and means the borough will need to do what it needs to do in order to stay financially sound.
Cutting further is not going to help much. Throughout 2009, Sinking Spring has undertaken a series of initiatives to save money, but in the end those cuts while saving money are not nearly enough to offset the expected deficit that would occur if the tax structure stays the same. We’ve already cut all we can.
The talk has shifted to a likely tax increase beginning in 2010. This will help cover what is expected to be a shortfall in revenue as expenses begin to surpass income. No tax increase is good news, but what is more troubling is that this likely may not be the last of them.
Putting it bluntly, what is killing us here is that residents are expected to pick up the tax because the lack of a steady commercial tax base. The borough really can’t go to our commercial sector and tax them: we stand to lose our fragile business climate if we do.
This in a nutshell is why the Sinking Spring Revitalization Project is so important. We need a solid commercial tax base, or otherwise the tax burden shifts to the resident.
Ask West Lawn what happens when your commercial sector isn’t functioning correctly — see my point?
Some people in this race are more worried about where your poop goes and who owns it rather than keeping this borough successful through investing in our future on a project that will actually make us money.
Where are their priorities? I’m not sure.