The ‘Big Give’ in Tredyffrin

In today’s Main Line Suburban newspaper, Malvern resident Kathleen Keohane writes the following Letter to the Editor, titled The ‘Big Give’ in Tredyffrin.  Kathleen’s take on Monday night’s Board of Supervisor Meeting is a poignant reminder to us all on the importance of sufficient funding to our volunteer fire companies.  Here is her letter from the paper:

To the Editor:

After following Tredyffrin’s budget brouhaha for several months, I attended Tredyffrin’s final Board of Supervisors’ meeting on Monday night with a mixture of hope and low expectations. As one of many who came to support full restoration of 2009 funding levels for our volunteer fire companies to the 2010 budget, I doubted there would be enough votes to reverse the cut but I had hope the Christmas spirit would move at least one supervisor to change his mind.

Instead, at the start of the meeting, BOS chair Warren Kampf pre-empted a nasty shout fest by announcing to a standing-room-only crowd that over the last two weeks he and fellow supervisors Paul Olson and Bob Lamina had gotten commitments from local businesses and residents to the tune of $23,200 to close the gap. Mr. Kampf said he thought even more private contributions were likely. He seemed very pleased that no taxpayer dollars were involved.

Short-term, it is good news for the cash-strapped fire companies, but it offers no assurance of future funding. As Supervisor John DiBuonaventuro noted, some of these generous end-of-year donors may be ones who would normally contribute directly to the fire companies and will not do so again during their 2010 fund drives. It is hard to gauge the net effect of this.

Also, the problem of establishing reliable funding streams to allow Paoli, Berwyn and Radnor fire companies to plan for major equipment purchases and other capital expenditures in the future remains. Though fire and EMS services are among the most essential services a township provides, these volunteer companies are left to wonder what lies ahead.

In my view and that of over 500 residents who signed a petition in support of maintaining fire funding at 2009 levels, it is ultimately the responsibility of local government and not private citizens or groups to ensure adequate fire protection. The buck stops with the board.

And we must not take a step backwards! If anything, Tredyffrin supervisors should be looking for ways to increase their support for our volunteer organizations in the future. We need to support them in ways that enhance the fire companies’ ability to recruit more volunteers, whose interests lie in helping the community – not in year-round fund-raising or enduring dismissive treatment from tone-deaf supervisors.

In this era of declining civic engagement, we need to honor our volunteer firefighters/EMTs, who put their lives on the line for us. Not providing a dedicated and predictable level of funding is disrespectful to them and endangers our community’s safety.

The proposed budget cuts to our firefighters sent the wrong message. And while one-time private contributions are much appreciated, they are a seat-of-the-pants response to an ongoing problem.

Kathleen Keohane, Malvern

Bad News for Easttown Township – Our Neighbors Receive a 12% Tax Increase

Our neighbors in Easttown Township are faced with a 2010 budget that includes a 12% real estate tax increase which includes a new $52 Local Service Tax (LST) for all those who work in the township.  The budget deficit facing the township for 2010 was approximately $500K and the LST will provide approximately $135K revenue.  Easttown Supervisor Ed Strogen was the sole dissenter on the 2010 budget and has doubts that the full estimated LST will actually be collected.  Supervisor Strogen was also a strong supporter of instituting an Earned Income Tax (EIT) in the township; raising the point of how much revenue residents are currently paying to other municipalities (who do have an Earned Income Tax).  A tax collection company suggested that imposing a 1% EIT in Easttown Township would have provided $1 Million revenue in 2010, and $3 Million the following years.  Unfortunately, the support was not there for the institution this year of an EIT.  However, passing their 2010 budget with a 12% tax increase to the taxpayers is going to be difficult for many of their residents.  This increase will certainly be challenging to those retired individuals on fixed incomes.

In the aftermath of the 2010 budget passage, Supervisor Strogen contends that an EIT will need to be implemented in the next few years. Let’s remember that Tredyffrin residents are currently paying $3 Million to other municipalities (which have an EIT) and it was determined that the implementation of an EIT in Tredyffrin would result in revenues of approximately $8 Million.  The difference between Easttown and Tredyffrin Townships on the subject of EIT, was that Easttown provided an open town hall forum for thorough discussion of the subject, whereas Tredyffrin did not.

Easttown’s primary budget problem stems from their loss of real estate transfer tax which accounts for approximately 18% of all its budgeted revenue.  Like Tredyffrin, Easttown’s budget has suffered with the downturn in real estate transfers, increased cost of services and the severity of our economic times.  Easttown and Tredyffrin Townships need to become more proactive in their long-range budget forecasting.  In both of these municipalities, what has played out in this budget cycle has been a short-term Band-Aid approach.  These townships should not wait until 2nd or 3rd quarter to begin to  look at 2011, but rather they need to start in January with focused, out-of-the-box exploration of all possible revenue sources.  Easttown and Tredyffrin Townships barely got by with the 2010 budget round and I think it’s going to be far more difficult to pull off an 11th hour ‘quick fix’ save for the 2011 budget!

Strategic Realty Investments. . . the Right Choice for the Community!

A few days ago, I shared the exciting news that Strategic Realty Investments (SRI) was named the master developer for the Paoli Rail Yard project.  One of the principals of SRI, Peter Monaghan is community-oriented and understands the importance of engaging the local residents in the process.  Both on a personal level and also as a board member of Paoli Business & Professional Association, I was happy to applaud the choice!  Peter kindly took the time to offer the following thoughts on the Paoli Rail Yard project and I wanted to share them . . . 

Pattye,

First and foremost I wanted to thank for your kind words of support and well wishes for the Paoli rail yards project. And thanks for your continued good work supporting Tredyffrin Township and its residents. I wanted to highlight a few matters that I think are important to consider in light of your December 20th blog post.

The redevelopment of the Paoli rail yards is in the very early planning stages, and while Strategic Realty Investments has recently been named master developer for the site, no decisions have been made as to what will be constructed there beyond the long awaited new Paoli train station, new transit parking garage and related transit infrastructure to replace the very outdated existing station and parking. A comprehensive vision that will benefit all stakeholders will be crafted in the coming months. Our goal is to provide all stakeholders with the opportunity to have input into the planning process. To that end, Strategic Realty will be holding a series of small group meetings within the community, and we will be sure to let you know the details so you can inform your readers.

In addition, we are at least 18 months from breaking ground at the site. The first phase of the project will address modernization of the Paoli Train station, and many infrastructure improvements are also in the queue as first steps toward redevelopment of the site. Long story short: we have ample time for the economy to recover before any ribbon cuttings occur. In the interim, our goal is to build a vision for the site that provides a unique transit-oriented asset in the heart of Paoli with a range of resources that benefit the community as a whole. This vision will be created in a collaborative manner, with consideration given to other resources already existent in the community such as the Worthington development.

Sincerely,

Peter Monaghan