Long predicted to be a difficult budget year, the 2011 township budget debate lived up to its billing, and, after hours of discussion, Lower Merion commissioners ratified a 10.8 percent municipal tax increase for township residents.

Local property taxes come from three components, the municipal tax, school tax and county tax. The township's portion of the local taxes is just over 13 percent of the total.

The last budget discussion took place in a wild commissioners meeting that lasted from 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 15 until 2:35 a.m., and included everything from one resident handing out jars of homemade mustard to tired commissioners yelling at each other across the dais in the early morning hours.

In the end, no significant spending reductions were made to the 2011 budget proposal, first recommended by Township Manager Doug Cleland on Friday, Nov. 5.

As in previous rounds of budget discussions, several commissioners made attempts to curtail the proposed tax increase—originally at 12.7 percent—in a variety of ways. Ultimately the only motion that was successful in significantly reducing the proposal was a drawdown of the township's fund balance, or surplus money, from 17 percent to 16 percent of planned expenditures.

The motion passed by a 7-6 vote, and mandates that about $500,000 of reserve funds will substitute for increased tax revenue. Commissioners Jenny Brown, Cheryl Gelber, Brian Gordon, Lewis Gould, George Manos, Philip Rosenzweig and Scott Zelov supported the action. Commissioners Rick Churchill, Jane Dellheim, Steven Lindner, Liz Rogan, Paul McElhaney and Reed were against. Commissioner Mark Taylor was absent due to a family issue.

Brown, Gelber, Gould, Rosenzweig and Zelov also voted in opposition to adopting the 2011 budget.

At the meeting, the board also ratified the 2011-16 Capital Improvement Program—$28.3 million of infrastructure improvements in 2011. The plan was passed more or less as originally proposed.

Some county open space money was shifted to go toward Cynwyd Trail, which was approved over the budgeted amount. All other projects will remain the same in the plan until commissioners have an opportunity to review them as they progress.

Differences in opinion on township spending and tax burdens continued to be a central dividing point between the board's majority and a minority of commissioners.

Despite a relatively subdued period of public comment, board comments became heated on several occasions—peaking with a shouting match between McElhaney, Rosenzweig, Reed and Brown just before the end of the meeting, well after midnight.

The argument arose from a report that McElhaney produced claiming that previous votes show the board unanimously approved nearly all of the spending in the budget. The accuracy of McElhaney's claims was hotly debated.

"I am embarrassed that members of this board, and I'm not laying the blame on anybody, should be raising their voices and screaming at each other, especially at 2:30 in the morning when everybody is exhausted," Gelber said once order was restored.

Several failed proposals were considered throughout the course of the meeting, including proposals from Gelber and Gordon to form ad hoc committees to do a comparative analysis of employee compensation and benefits in Lower Merion and in nearby townships. Gelber's motion failed 7-6 with Gordon, Zelov, Brown, Rosenzweig and Gould in support. And Gordon's motion, which was similar, failed to draw support and was withdrawn by the commissioner.

Another failed motion came when Reed suggested an alternative means of lowering the tax increase through raising parking revenues. Reed suggested raising the parking meter rates to 75 cents per hour, despite objections from Christine Vilardo in public comment.

Vilardo, head of pro-business group Ardmore Initiative, said increasing parking fees would have a negative effect on local businesses who rely on customers parking in the township to shop at their stores.

Reed's motion was opposed strongly by Dellheim, Gould and Zelov, and failing to draw support, was withdrawn.

The only other significant tax relief in the 2011 budget proposal came from two motions passed with 7-6 votes, cutting a little over $40,000 from the budget, or around 0.2 percentage points from the proposed tax increase. The commissioners voted to introduce a fee for a previously free summer playground program from the township's parks and recreation department, and to cap longevity bonuses for non-union workers in the township at 20-years—grandfathering in employees already over the threshold.

Gelber, Gordon, Churchill, Brown, Zelov, Rosenzweig and Gould cast the deciding votes on both motions. The commissioners capped longevity bonuses at 20 years and added the position of deputy fire chief back in the budget, unfunded for now.

Sometime after midnight, the commissioners took turns summarizing their views on the proposed budget and the process to that point. 

"Every year township spending has gone up," Brown said. "To say we are saving money because we were planning on spending even more than we did, that doesn't even pass the straight face test. Only in government can spending more every year be described as a reduction in spending."

"The hardest thing this township needs to learn how to do is say no," Brown said. "We need to spend taxpayer money the way those people would spend it themselves—carefully, responsibly and thoughtfully."

Dellheim offered an opposing view, saying she calculated her household's portion of the tax burden would be slightly more than $4 per day. "I'm happy to pay it," Dellheim said, citing a long list of excellent services provided by the township.

Gordon said that while he supports cutting costs, no amount of cuts would result in a 0 percent tax increase every year. "Governing bodies run into these walls," Gordon said, with contractual wage increases, inflation and rising costs, the township must enhance revenue periodically, the commissioner said.

Rogan said she believes that any meaningful cuts to township spending would mean cuts in services. "There has been comments about the fact that our budget is 70 percent personnel costs," Rogan said. "It we don't want to spend more money, we have to decide what we want to do without."

Zelov disagreed. "Stagnant revenue is happening everywhere," he said. "We need to continuously reduce our spending to get the structural change we need."

A sign of the times, the commissioner was already looking ahead to the 2012 budget, which he said was facing similarly dire financial projections.

Adopted Tax Increases for 2011 (4.19 mills)