The squeeze is on

It's budget time for local governments, the time when elected officials look at the numbers to see what it will take to balance their budgets without a property tax increase.

And rest assured, nobody wants to raise taxes.

Two stories this week show the difficult financial situations that municipalities across the county are facing.

In Seven Valleys, borough council is considering a proposed budget that would double the property tax from 0.6 mills to 1.2 mills, according to a story in the York Dispatch. The increase is needed to pay for a road maintenance project from two years ago:

The borough contracted York-based Stewart & Tate for milling and paving work on South and Maple Streets in 2008. The project cost about $255,000. The borough received about $115,000 in federal grants to help pay for the project. To cover the remaining expense, it took out a $140,000 bank loan from Peoples Bank.

Over the past two years, the borough has been paying back the 10-year loan by pulling money out of its general fund reserve, Bahn said. By the end of this year, Bahn said the borough will have about $90,000 remaining in the fund.The borough has eight annual payments -- about $17,500 each -- remaining on the loan.

And if it continues to pay for the loan by pulling money out of the fund each year, Bahn said, the borough will "go broke."

And a bit further south, New Freedom officials are seeing if they can get a better deal on police service, according to the York Daily Record. The borough pays about $500,000 a year for contracted service from Southern Regional Police Department. The department also provides service to Glen Rock, Railroad, Shrewsbury and the Southern York School district. The story suggests that if New Freedom leaves, the whole arrangement could be in jeopardy:

New Freedom gave notice during the summer that it would be looking to price options with other departments, officials said. It has been talking with Southwestern and York Area regional police departments. Some people have not been happy with Southern Regional's service, New Freedom Mayor Jeff Joy said, but he thinks they should give the new chief, James Boddington, a chance to fix problems.

Meanwhile, Glen Rock continues to annually review its options because of budget constraints and now, in light of New Freedom's move, Shrewsbury will weigh its options as well.

New Freedom could save several thousand dollars a year by switching to Southwestern Regional or York Area Regional departments. But they'll continue to have the same decision to make every year, depending on what their budget situation is. YorkCounts supports exploring whether a dedicated funding source - like a "police" tax that would be comparable to the current 911 tax on phone bills for emergency services - would provide a more stable financial model for regional departments.

But that discussion requires nuanced thinking. And that doesn't fit well in the current environment, where politicians just won elections by tapping into the "No tax increasses" mantra. Unfortunately, bumper-sticker thinking won't solve most of these problems. Local elected officials have some difficult choices to make. And if they do their homework and try to do the right thing, they should be applauded, not attacked.

Update, Nov. 19: Add Dallastown School District to the mix. The district held a community forum this week, and residents showed up simmering about property taxes and staff pay. Read the York Dispatch story here. Seems like there might be growing political support (that is, voter support) for new approaches to education - how we fund it, how we organize it.

- Dan Fink