Proposed North Codorus budget has 75 percent tax hike

North Codorus Township will hold a special meeting Thursday to discuss if it should raise taxes, cut services and increase sewer rates.

[Wow]

Who's responsible for screwing all of that up?

[Steve]

Blame the liberal democrats in Washington....they caused the crash of our economy by starting the housing loan crisis which in turn, set off a domino effect. It's not just this Township, municipalities are hurting. Most, if not all, rely on earned income tax for 50% or more of their budget. When people are not working, the earned income tax decreases. Thank God these people who could not afford a home loan and now lost their house and defulted on their loan got a taste of the American dream for at least a few years. Too bad they didn't have to earn it like everyone else. It's only going to get worse folks!! Remember, Hope and Change. Catchy slogan that meant nothing.

[bill]

no it was that moron of a twp manager prior to this one. she was to worried about pet birds in her office and what time to eat lunch than the twp financial well being.

[some free advice]

Hint: Contact West Manchester Township, York County, PA, commissioners/administration and see how THEY do it. NO increase in taxes for over 30+ years. If they DO NOT have the funds, they DO NOT purchase it. That certainly is a strange way of doing business in this day and age, AIN'T!
KUDOS to WMT......

[tired of the crap]

WTF!!! THIS IS CRAZY. I CANT AFFORD THE 200$ PER QUARTER FOR SEWER..

[fiscal responsibility]

Heres the solution fire those morons in charge and replace them with people who know how to run a municipality the right way by being cost effective each year . There is no excuse for tax increases that high in tough times you cut costs and purchases not services the taxpayer has to make adjustments to get by in this economy so should governments . PA needs to stop schools and municipalities from bleeding the homeowner dry .This state is being run by idiots who need voted out of office and put on the unemployment lines .

[Oh my]

Those of us who are not on public sewer already have to pay to maintain our own systems. We should not be penalized and have to pay to maintain something we're not using. Just raise taxes is always the answer. There has to be someone that can maintain a budget from one year to the next. These people only draw a paycheck and really do not care.

[YorkGuy]

Here is another case of a bailout on a smaller scale. Local government backing a Sewer Authority with money they don't have. What idiots!

Between school taxes, local taxes, state taxes and all the rest we are being bled dry. It is also my understanding that starting in 2012 there is going to be a PA Statewide pension "crisis" and school taxes are going to skyrocket as well as State taxes:

http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/...

All State employee pensions are affected, and we’ll most likely see income tax increases. But school porperty taxes will be hit hard. The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System
(PSERS) website posts the employer (that’s us) tentative contribution for school districts:

In conjunction with its actuaries, the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) has developed tentative projections for the employer contribution rate for the next five years to assist with your budget planning. These tentative projections are based on the actual investment returns that were recently reported for the 2008/2009 fiscal year and potential actuarial experience losses for the 2008/2009 fiscal year.

Official employer contribution rate projections will not be available until the actuarial valuation is completed in December 2009.

The official employer contribution rate for FY 2010/2011 and future rate projections will be available after the PSERS’ Board of Trustees meeting on December 11, 2009 in Harrisburg. Until this time, these figures should be considered to be tentative:

2010-2011 8.40%
2011-2012 10.70%
2012-2013 29.55%
2013-2014 32.45%
2014-2015 33.95%

http://www.psers.state.pa.us/er/employer.htm

[YorkGuy]

when did I move to Waterloo, Canada? I live in York County.

[Fear of Cops]

Well it looks like the state police could be rolling through the township soon. Get rid of local police and save the cash and use it for culverts.

[Steve]

Steve wrote:

Blame the liberal democrats in Washington....they caused the crash of our economy by starting the housing loan crisis which in turn, set off a domino effect.

Looks like someone else swallowed the Kool Aid on that one. Hmmm, let's see what makes more sense:

1. Runaway mortgage lending by an underregulated industry who derived huge immediate profits from pumping as many loans as they could, good or bad, through the approval process as quickly as possible with creative ways to get people to take out more money than they could afford, then turning those into investment instruments by foisting the bad paper on third parties so that they could lend as much as they wanted without assuming any of the actual risk themselves.

or

2. Some obscure regulation passed during the Carter administration that just HAPPENED to COINCIDENTALLY cause a housing crisis timed perfectly with George W. Bush's second term in office thirty years later.

Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. I wonder which of those makes more sense.

[NCT Resident]

We need some support for the taxpayers side at this meeting tomorrow. I am outraged by this proposal and cannot afford another $600 a year for sewer in addition to the increased tax. They "conveniently" scheduled the meeting for 2:30pm when most of us are at work- hoping, I guess, that not many township residents would be there as we have jobs to work!! So if you have a flexible schedule or are off for the day, please, please show up and voice the opinion that the township residents WILL NOT stand for this!!

[Debra Flynn - NCT]

A meeting will be held tomorrow at 2:30 pm to "discuss" this huge increase in tax and sewer fees and DECREASE in services? How will working folks be able to attend the 2:30 pm meeting! Why isn't the meeting at 7 pm like other meetings?
Where is the sense in this? They don't want too much fuss, that's why! I am scared to ask what services they will put on the chopping block. It seems as though the township officers think there is a bottomless bucket of money coming from the homeowners in NCT. I already have difficulty paying $200 for a sewer fee not based on my 2,000 gal. a month water usage. I certainly can't afford a 50% tax increase!
I strongly urge everyone to call the township, speak to their neighbors and have this meeting moved to a time when we can all attend the meeting!

[nct resident also]

this is the worst township i have ever lived in. it's bad enough we were forced to have the sewer installed-without water hook up yet. i suppose in another year or so they'll be tearing up our yards again and increasing taxes once again to pay for that. the board is useless--nothing but a bunch of morans--have you ever gone to meeting? i have-my big toe is more intelligent than that crew! i urge everyone to bombard that meeting and let them know we are not going to take their CRAP anymore.

[mara]

Bad culverts and equipment over 14 years old?! Most of the culverts aren't even at the right place, why bother fixing them?! As for the equipment - tough! If you can't afford new, you make due with what you have! I don't think that 14 years is that old when you are talking this kind of equipment and the (little) amount of time they are used!

I live in the township and don't have sewer -- and certainly don't want to pay for someone else to use it! Shouldn't the decision have been made at the time of the mortgage for the sewer how they were going to pay for it??!!

I'm sure there are things that could be cut! It disgusts me that industry has to constantly be looking for ways to take cost out of their operations, but government just continues business as usual - because they can always demand more money from taxpayers. It is a good thing that industry doesn't work this way! We would all be living on the streets, naked and starved because we wouldn't be able to afford anything!

[DARK STAR]

How far can you push people before they push back ?
These flaming (__*__) are asking for It.

[Oscar]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is yet another reason why the township system needs to be eliminated. There is no need for 10 townships, 10 miles from each other to have so many duplicated services. I guarantee you that there are plenty of backhoes, trucks, bulldozers that are just sitting around not being used. Why, because Eastwestminster township has to have their own equipment while Westeastminster also has to have their own equipment. Oh yes, don't plan on borrowing any of our equipment.

I also guarantee you that in the maintenance shops there are big pieces of equipment that get used, what, once a year? Yes, it makes perfect sense to spend $150,000 on something that you use for one hour, once a year.

People, it's time. Get rid of the antiquated township system and centralize the system.

[Frank]

Wasn't Derr the manager of York Twp or Springettsbury Twp? Did he get a demotion?

[Viktor]

Keep your socialism and panic button mentality, Oscar. The Township system works fine, there are plenty of examples where the system works extremely well. Any system will do poorly with bad leadership and irresponsible fiscal management.

If regionalized government was the answer, then we would expect that York County government would run like clockwork....and as we all know nothing could be further from the truth.

Someone in North Codorus needs to have the guts and the brains to take care of business. If that person isn't around, yelling at the idiots in charge will just be yelling at idiots and hoping they somehow grow brains overnight.

[WTH]

I'd like to know how many of these complaining NCT residents actually bothered to vote last Tuesday. Do you realize you voted in the same board member that caused this whole mess?????? DUH!!!!!!!!!!