Montgomery County holds public hearings ahead of 2025 budget vote

Montgomery County Commissioners heard from area residents during two public hearings on Thursday concerning the proposed 2025 budget and corresponding 9 percent real estate tax hike.

The sessions occurred a week before a scheduled vote to adopt the budget with a 9 percent real estate tax increase on the table as a way to close a $15.8 million spending gap.

“I was disappointed to see the 9 percent proposed increase in taxes,” said Ambler resident David Morgan, one of nine people who participated in the morning public hearing. A second session was held Thursday evening.

Expenditures up

The county is projecting $610.9 million in expenditures and nearly $595.2 million in revenues. Health and human services accounted for 36.7 percent of expenditures, followed by county administration and judicial at 18.1 percent and corrections at 13.6 percent.

Noting the increased expenditures, which were around $43.1 million, or 7.6 percent higher, than the 2024 budget, Montgomery County Chief Finance Officer Dean Dortone said in a November presentation that several areas contributed to the level of expense, including new personnel and debt service costs, as well as a $2 million “projected inter-fund transfer” to the county’s 911 fund.

Personnel costs for 2025 were listed at roughly $291.2 million, according to budget figures, which are around $36.7 million, or 14.5 percent, higher than the previous year.

Dortone attributed staffing, designating $30.1 million to the county pension plan and rising costs associated with employee health care as reasons for the increase. In his presentation, Dortone said “inflationary cost pressures” and “higher demand for medical services coming out of the pandemic” translated to having $4.8 million more in the 2025 proposed budget.

“Nearly half [of the] proposed budget [was] allocated toward county staff for continuing to provide exceptional, high quality service,” Montgomery County Commissioner Jamila Winder said at the public hearing Thursday.

Positive comments

Several commenters expressed their appreciation for financial support granted for education, environmental and food insecurity-related initiatives. Karen DeAngelo, the library’s executive director, shared her excitement about future renovation efforts to the Norristown-based facility.

“New libraries are now a place for people to connect with the world, with each other, with their communities and with themselves,” DeAngelo said.

Montgomery County earmarked $12 million as part of 2025 spending for the capital improvement plan, with another $14 million allocated for the following two years. Renovation plans for the circa-1970s building included meeting rooms, as well as interactive and quiet spaces, according to DeAngelo.

The library will be “a vibrant place for everyone in [the] community to learn, explore, to be and become their best possible selves,” she said.

Additionally, the county’s main revenue drivers included real estate taxes at 54.1 percent, federal and state grants at 34.6 percent and departmental earnings at 11.3 percent, according to budget figures.

COVID funds

Questions were raised concerning more than $161 million in designated federal COVID-19 relief dollars that had to be allocated by 2024 and spent by 2026.

“What contingencies do you have in place for the possibility of federal assistance not being here later in the year?” asked Wynnewood resident Adrian Seltzer, noting that “federal and state grants make up almost 35 percent of our budget. If the federal government sees fit to stop funding us, what contingencies do we have?”

Officials highlighted how the budget touches various energy, housing, infrastructure, open space, and trails projects.

“While all this seems like a lot of money, I think it really highlights we’re doing this in a fiscally responsible way,” Montgomery County Commissioners Vice Chairman Neil Makhija said. “How we’re able to achieve so many of our objectives by leveraging local funds to obtain state and federal money as well. We’re also simply being smarter in the way that we spend and finance money.”

Montgomery County Commissioner Tom DiBello disagreed, instead encouraging more strategies be taken to alleviate resident burdens, who he described as “being hit from every angle.”

“There’s a lot going on in Montgomery County,” he said. “It costs a lot of money to do business in Montgomery County, but we also have to be cognizant of the fact that we have our taxpayers being stretched to the limit with inflation and all the rising costs throughout the county, throughout the state and country.”

Raising the county real estate tax rate from 5.642 mills from the current 5.178 mills would generate roughly $28.8 million in “new net real estate tax revenue to the general fund,” Dortone said last month.

He estimated around 40 percent of single-family homes with property values between $200,000 and $414,000 would pay $601 per year in county real estate taxes, which is an annual increase of $49. An “average single-family home” valued at around $520,100 would pay $79 more per year at $965, Dortone said.

“The idea it’s called a revenue enhancement as the gentleman mentioned last week,” Morgan said. “Revenue enhancing is taxing residents…”

Programs offering eligible residents on a fixed or low income assistance include the county’s Real Estate Tax Deferral Program and the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue’s Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program. Additionally, the Active Volunteer Real Estate Tax Rebate Ordinance offers some relief to qualified first responders. More information on the county program can be found at montgomerycountypa.gov/finance.

“Overall this budget, it takes care of all the key priorities that we care about, does so in a responsible way and we continue to find means to help those who need it in terms of tax deferral and rebates like the fire and EMS credit,” Makhija said, adding around cost-measures amounted to roughly $4 million, through “budgetary debt service” and “operational reductions.”

The next Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 19 on the eighth floor of One Montgomery Plaza, 425 Swede St. Those interested in participating can also do so virtually. Visit montgomerycountypa.gov for more information.

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