The suburbs have not been immune from the tough economy. In Montgomery County, the County Commissioners are struggling with an $11 million deficit. To deal with the problem, they have to choose from a menu of bad and worse.
Here is a little taste of what might happen:
The commissioners are asking every county department to cut spending by 5 percent, and the preliminary budget would freeze wages, require workers to pay about 5 percent of their salaries toward health insurance coverage, allow them to "buy" additional vacation time, cut back on borrowing to purchase open space, reduce the vehicle fleet and might include layoffs.
The biggest difference with Philadelphia? No tax increase. The other choices are pretty familiar though.
It's nice to know we're not the only place having trouble, but this is a sort of regionalism that we could do without.
Review city services on our sister site, City Howl.
This is what you get when Republicans are in charge for a hundred years. Don't know how to manage a budget. Across the board cuts because they have no strategy. They go right after the middle class - salary freeze, health care benefit pay cut, and layoffs. There won't be a middle class left when Republicans are finished. Keep voting Republican, sheep, and Montco will look like Detroit.— MikeP- Yes, Mike P, they should have kept spending and asked for more taxes from the middle class. Worked well in Philly, which already looks like Detroit.— RG
- MikeP, that is the craziest rhetoric I have ever heard. Montgomery County is the great place to live it is today, the place where THOUSANDS of former City of Philadelphia residents have MOVED TO because of REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP. How does cutting the salaries of COUNTY WORKERS "go right after the middle class?" It goes right after the unions who have had their hand in the cookie jar destroying city after city with their ridiculous wage and benefit packages. Government unionized workers are not "the middle class", they are the reason the middle class pays more in taxes than the should!— Grill
- Right MikeP, you must be a Philadelphia Democratic SHEEP. The ratio of R's to D's in Montco is nowhere near the ratio of D's to R's in the city.— bpp1999
- There you go again, petty bickering based on party labels. Dems, Repugs, makes no difference as they are but two wings of the same corporate whorocracy.— riverhealer
Comment removed.
MONEY AND JUSTICE DON'T MIX
WILL THE NEW COUNCIL GIVE YOU A SAY?
Tips? Comments? Questions?
Contact:
Doron Taussig:
215-854-5307
doron.taussig@gmail.com
@dorontaussig
Holly Otterbein:
215-854-5809
hm.otterbein@gmail.com
@hollyotterbein
Juliana Reyes:
215-854-5855
juliana.f.reyes@gmail.com
@juliana_f_reyes
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