Lower Macungie Commissioners Vote to Bring Back Property Tax

After considerable and often contentious debate, the Lower Macungie Board of Commissioners passed, on a 3-2 vote Thursday, a 2014 budget that establishes a property tax rate of .33 mills.

When the 2014 budget takes effect, it will be the first time in 12 years that township residents will be paying a property tax to the township.

Commissioners Ron Eichenberg, Douglas Brown and James Lancsek voted in favor of the proposed budget, while Commissioners Roger Reiss and Ryan Conrad voted against it.

For Eichenberg and Lancsek, the property tax is merely a matter of fairness.

Lancsek said that he had supported the budget since day one. “There is no such thing as a good tax, no such thing as a fair tax,” Lancsek said. “But commercial and industrial users have had a free lunch and everybody should pay a little something for the quality of life in this township, especially the commercial and industrial users.”

Eichenberg was also a vocal supporter of the proposed budget, citing a lack of fairness in maintaining the status quo.

“I believe it is our civic responsibility to support the services that a municipality provides,” Eichenberg said. “Our municipality provides considerable services, it is our civic responsibility to pay for those services. The taxes that we pay are an investment into our community, an investment into our quality of life.

“In my world, I operate on fairness. Mack Truck, Cedar Shopping Center paying zero tax, is that fair?” he asked.

During the debate Eichenberg took fellow commissioner Conrad to task for proposing alternative budget scenarios too late in the budget development process.

Conrad defended his proposal and its timing: "There is no right or wrong time to initiate a discussion or engage the public."

Township manager Bruce Fosselman began his budget presentation by pointing out that Thursday’s meeting was the sixth public discussion of the 2014 budget. He then painstakingly laid out the elements of the proposed $18.6 million budget for those assembled, including the factors making the property tax necessary.

Fosselman also said he wanted to clear up some matters about the budget. He said the township was not “bringing back” a property tax since a Lower Macungie property tax had never been eliminated. The township had merely been setting the property tax at a rate of zero, he said.