NEWS
MONTGOMERY COUNTY OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
COURT HOUSE, NORRISTOWN, PA., BOX 311, 19404-0311
PHONE (610) 278-3061 FAX 278-5943
COMMISSIONERS:
JAMES R. MATTHEWS, Chairman, JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Vice Chairman, BRUCE L. CASTOR, JR, Commissioner
RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY 12/01/08 PR#08-40
Montgomery County Commissioners Introduce No Tax Increase Budget for 2009
NORRISTOWN — The Montgomery County Commissioners introduced a $481.9 million budget for 2009 Monday that calls for no tax increase and slashes expenditures in the face of declining revenues.
The owner of a home assessed at $168,242, the county average, would continue to pay $453.41 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.
Increased expenditures and declining revenues left the Commissioners with a $42.5 million gap at the beginning of the budget process that had to be made up to avoid a tax increase.
This budget reflects an overall reduction in expenditures of $2.5 million from the 2008 adopted budget.
One major area of savings is in health benefits for employees. The County will continue to provide employees with full health care coverage through Keystone HMO at a savings of $4.2 million.
The budget is funded in part through a $19.5 million fund balance appropriation. That is a $13.5 million decrease in what was needed from that fund to balance last year’s budget. The fund balance is essentially an emergency reserve fund that, through careful monitoring of spending and cost cutting, the Commissioners will maintain at $46.5 million in 2009.
