Pike budget raises taxes

New budget calls for a 7-percent increase

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA — Saying it was unfortunate but unavoidable, the Pike County Commissioners announced that the 2006 budget will raise taxes by one mill.

“We have a $2,182,013 increase in expenditures over last year,” commissioner’s chair Harry Forbes said on December 7.

The increase is due, in part, to a $700,000 increase in medical insurance costs for employees, an increase of $546,711 in aid to children and youth, and several other miscellaneous expenses, which add up to $2,182,013.

The amount to be raised by real estate taxes is $14,118,486. The assessed valuation for all properties in the county is $1,001,490,040. Total spending in the county will be $29,976,614. Last year, that figure was $27,637,573.

The home assessed at $40,000 paid a tax of $566 in 2005. The same house must pay $606 in 2006, a 7-percent increase.

“Our county commissioners’ organization is lobbying the legislature to create other ways to raise money than the property tax,” commissioner Karl Wagner said. “We want to see the use of a sale taxes and some kind of income tax to raise funds. It’s completely unfair to senior citizens on fixed incomes to exclusively use the property tax.”

The federal government is now canceling the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program and putting the obligation on the states and the counties, Wagner said.

“We used to get 100 percent reimbursement from TANF,” he said. “Now, we have to use Act 148 funds for the program and that requires a 50-percent match from the county.”

The federal government imposes the obligation and then refuses to pay for it, he said.

“Pike County is a growth county, which is seeing an increase in social services and a whole range of other services,” commissioner Rich Caridi said. “If we don’t get some assistance from the state for these expenses through some other means than the property tax, we’re in a pickle.”

Another example of the federal government imposing and not disposing enough is the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which requires states and counties to replace lever-machines with electronic machines. “The act offers the county $170,000 but our cost is more like $550,000,” Caridi said. “Our taxpayers have to foot the bill.”

The federal government has set a January 2006 deadline for compliance to standards for electronic machines.

The budget is available for examination at the commissioners’ office at the administration building at 506 Broad Street in Milford. Copies cost $20.

The commissioners must approve the budget by December 28.