A state House bill that would charge municipalities lacking police departments $156 annually for each resident to cover the cost of state police protection is so unpopular, it may necessitate police protection at upcoming municipal meetings.
Virtually all the elected officials contacted by the Mirror from the mostly small townships and boroughs that would fall under proposal guidelines denounced it.
"It stinks," said Jim Grove, chairman of the board of supervisors in Frankstown Township, which - as the largest of eligible municipalities in the six-county Mirror coverage area - would owe $1.2 million under Lancaster Democratic Rep. Mike Sturla's bill.
"We would go broke in three to four years."
And Frankstown is one of the wealthiest of area municipalities.
"It sucks," said Jon Gallaher of Coalport Borough council in Clearfield County. "We don't have any money."
"Ridiculous," said Charlie Diehl, supervisor in Snyder Township. "Something like this would kill everything."
"Asinine," said Norma Pejack of Rainsburg Borough Council.
People in Rainsburg already are upset about loss of control represented by consolidation of their elementary school and economic problems caused by property reassessment and layoffs, she said. The Sturla proposal is a "laughable" further assault, she said.
Taxpayers all over the state already pay for state police through vehicle and driver license fees and liquid fuels taxes, officials said.
But municipalities that have their own departments essentially pay double, supporting two police services.
Sturla's bill seeks to ameliorate the imbalance.
But the bill would double some municipal budgets and multiply some property tax levies several times over.
In principle, asking municipalities that rely on state police to pay more "might not be a bad idea," Lester Wachob, president of supervisors in Brady Township, Clearfield County.
But the amount is "clear out of reason," he said.
The proposal would require a payment of $313,000 a year, the equivalent of 31 mills, almost five times the current levy.
The township's total budget is about $300,000.
"Somebody better put this back on the drawing board," he said. "This will never fly."
The township could set up and run a modest-size department of its own for less than a third of the money the proposal would demand, he said.
It's simply too much, especially with many municipalities struggling, said state Rep. Jerry Stern, R-Martinsburg.
It's especially unjustified in quiet townships like Huston, in his district, he said.
There aren't many serious crimes "out here in the sticks," said Russell Lewis, president of supervisors in Henderson Township, Huntingdon County.
When crimes occur, people tend to get caught, because "everybody knows everybody" and they aren't afraid to let the authorities know, he said.
Not only is the price high, but municipalities wouldn't get more than they're already getting, said Holly Fishel, research director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.
Simply collecting the money in second-class townships would be a problem; code doesn't authorize a special property tax for police protection, she said.
But state Rep. Rick Geist, who represents two municipalities with their own departments - Altoona and Logan Township - favors the Sturla proposal.
"If people are getting a service, they should pay," he said.
It's only fair, he said.
Why should people who live in Altoona and Logan Township pay for their own departments, while also sharing the bill for Frankstown equally with Frankstown residents, he wondered.
Frankstown doesn't currently have a property tax.
Would the township even need to levy one if the bill passed?
"Hard to tell," Grove said. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
The income generated by the Sturla bill would replace liquid-fuels tax income, which would benefit the state, because liquid fuels tax shouldn't be paying for state police answering a call to a burglary in Sylvan Hills, instead of patrolling the highways, Geist said.
Yet the current setup isn't as unfair as people claim, according to Fishel.
Municipalities without their own departments can rely on state police protection, but they don't get their local ordinances - including speeding ordinances - enforced, she said.
Conversely, municipalities that have their own departments get the benefit of state police services, including investigations, drug raid help and accident reconstruction, Fishel and others said.
Rather than punish municipalities for relying on state police, the state should make it easier for municipalities to create their own police departments, according to Fishel, who cited a 1999 task force study.
The state should allow municipalities to keep all their fines, providing low-interest loans and authorize specific police-tax levies, she said.
The Sturla proposal may be a disguised prod for municipalities to form regional police departments, according to Altoona Mayor Wayne Hippo.
Sharing services is sensible, because "We're all just one community," he said.
Yet many rural townships are so large that regionalization is impractical, because of the cost, especially when separated by mountain ridges, said William Griffith, president of supervisors in Boggs Township, Centre County.
Griffith actually wouldn't mind paying for state police service, he said.
"We have always gotten real good service from state police," he said.
But he's not sure how the township would pay for it, especially with five bridges that need to be redone, he said.
The prod to regionalization might work in Antis.
If the bill passes, the township would need to check into the possibility of joining an existing police department such as Tyrone or Bellwood, said Ray Amato, chairman of the supervisors.
That doesn't mean he likes the bill.
"It seems like the representatives and everybody are trying to throw everything on the taxpayer," he said.
Coalport, in Clearfield County, has investigated regionalization with neighboring municipalities but found it to be too expensive, said Joe Nevling, council president.
So is the $17,000 the Sturla proposal calls for its 490 residents to pay, he said.
So the borough has settled for protection from state police, which is satisfactory, with response to the rare major incidents within a half-hour, Nevling said.
Gregg Township, Centre County, Supervisor Douglas Bierly wonders whether the "Draconian" Sturla proposal - along with the threat to close state parks - is a tool to prod people to accept Gov. Ed Rendell's 16-percent income tax hike proposal.
Bierly would prefer to pay the income tax hike, because it's less painful than either of the alternatives, he said.
Setting aside the question of fairness, Antis Township Manager Jeff Ziegler wondered about equitability.
The charge is per capita, but there's great disparity between the wealth of municipalities, he said.
Chest Springs Borough in Cambria County is an economically deprived area with just 110 residents, many elderly, said Paul Eckenrode, president of borough council.
There are five streets and no hired employees. The borough rents a truck to plow, and a resident operates it for free.
Millage is 2.5; one mill generates $855, and paying the bill would mean adding 20 mills, he said. That's eight times the current levy.
"Impossible," he said.
In Henderson Township, finances are already tight, with two full-timers, property tax at 5 mills, 28 miles of unpaved roads and oil expensive to tar and chip them, Lewis said.
It would break the township to comply with the proposal, he said.
Some see the proposal as a dumping of responsibility.
"I can't help it if the state can't budget its money," said Robert Figard, supervisor in Broad Top Township in Bedford County.
"It's funny, but it isn't," Brady Township's Wachob said.
Rather than take money from local governments, higher-level governments should be feeding them money, as a kind of economic fertilizer, said Gary Frehn, chairman of supervisors in Shirley Township, Huntingdon County.
"[Government] is like a living plant," he said. "You trim it at the top and feed it at the bottom."
The Sturla bill will die on the House floor, Lewis predicted. "I'm praying that it does."
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
