Monday, December 12, 2011
Hoeffel said commissioners will meet on weeknights and weekends if necessary.
The clock is ticking for Montgomery County to finalize its 2012 operating budget and the county government will be holding a series of public meetings over the next two weeks to achieve that goal, County Commissioner Joseph Hoeffel said this morning. Hoeffel indicated that a county tax increase was likely to figure prominently in the discussions after commissioners received more than 4,000 public comments objecting to massive program cuts in the preliminary budget announced Nov. 30. "We had 300 people in a public meeting who stood up and asked us to raise their taxes," Hoeffel said, referring to last week's public hearing on the budget. Matthews Expected to Participate Public meetings will be held in the 8th floor boardroom at One …
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Many voice support for tax increase to cover budget shortfall
If the program-slashing preliminary budget the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners posted last week was intended to elicit a reaction from the public, it seems to have worked. Residents packed a courtroom at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown on Wednesday for a public hearing on the budget, some waiting in line for up to three hours to speak to commissioners Joe Hoeffel and Bruce Castor on the importance of the county parks department, library system, Montgomery County Community College, and other institutions threatened by funding cuts in the proposed $384.4 million operating budget. Having already moved the Board of Commissioners meeting to the courthouse from its usual venue in the eighth floor boardroom of One …
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
A question about plans for a possible tax hike prompted Montco Commissioner James Matthews to express his opinion that an increase is needed or county services will suffer.
Though not exactly on the agenda for the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners' meeting this morning at One Montgomery Plaza, an impromptu discussion of the county's current budget situation arose, as did the possibility of a tax hike. The tax hike question was addressed when a reporter asked about rumors of one coming before the current commissioners leave office. 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," Hoeffel said. He suggested …
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Commissioner: ‘… boy, we really made the wrong decision.’
Montgomery County Commissioners approved an ordinance to refinance 2001 general obligation bonds through a refunding program Aug. 10. Because the county received an Aaa bond rating from Moody’s Investors Service, the county will refinance its existing debt through a bond issue with a 1.997 interest rate, said Public Financial Management Managing Director L. Gordon Walker. In the same ordinance, the county will also terminate a swap agreement made in 2001 in conjunction with the 2001 bonds. The termination will cost the county $7.9 million, said Walker, who is also the county’s financing consultant. Walker said he believes termination is best for the county’s long-term interest otherwise the county would have to refund bonds with a variable…
Thursday, May 19, 2011
A Democratic county commissioner gives a civil servant a tongue lashing for putting too many people on the voter rolls.
Over the last month or so, there has been a lot of hand-wringing over a “mistake” somewhere in the Motor Voter Registration System in Montgomery County. The Democratic Party ran around getting headlines that somehow bad things were happening because there was a sharp uptick in non-partisan registrations compared to other counties in the state. Being paranoid, the Democrats thought, "Of course people were doing bad things to the Democrats. Hey, they always do." So there are hearings and investigations. At the end of the day, it turns out a civil servant had made what turns out to be a “bad” call on a series of questionable procedures. Evidently, if someone moves into Montco and makes the adjustment on their drivers’ license at PennDOT and …
brian shannon
1:28 pm on Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The mess that the legacy "administrations" have left requires swift action to REDUCE spending not raise taxes. The "MEETING" was packed with county employees and special interests. Bite the bullet like all other TAXPAYERS and just fix the problem. PS the Elmwood ZOO is no asset to the county trust me! more ›