December 23, 2010

Yesterday, in a 2-1 vote, the Montgomery County Commissioners approved the 2011 county budget which cuts spending for the third year in a row while maintaining essential county services.  The budget reduces the size of the county workforce and does not increase taxes.

County government has been squeezed hard in the recession by declining revenues and increased demand for services, just like all governments, all businesses and all households.

I am glad our budget does not require a tax increase during a lingering recession.  I fought for spending cuts across the board of 5%, and the budget as finally approved reduces spending on county-funded departments on average by nearly 4%.

The bipartisan governing coalition that Jim Matthews and I formed three years ago has held together, and we passed the budget on a 2-1 vote with no help, as usual, from Bruce Castor.  We had an interesting time yesterday, with over three hours of debate, motions, recesses and meetings with staff, before Jim and I agreed on the budget.

While we have cut back the county bureaucracy, we have also established an economic development program which has invested $5 million in revitalization projects in Norristown and Pottstown.  600 more jobs exist today in Norristown due to this county support.

We also completed 5 transportation projects around the county with $5.5 million in county funds in our new Jump Start program to fight traffic congestion and increase road capacity.

Next year will bring more county action to create jobs, revitalize communities, fix traffic logjams, enforce our strengthened ethics requirements, and defend human services against expected state cuts.

I wish you the very best for the holiday season.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Sincerely,