POTTSTOWN >> In the past four years, the borough payroll has increased almost 30 percent during a time when the rate of inflation has risen less than four percent, and pay hikes should stop.
That was the message Pottstown School Board member Thomas Hylton had for borough council Monday night.
Hylton, speaking during the public comment period, noted that since the beginning of the year, Pottstown teachers have been attending school board meetings saying they are underpaid.
He said in the period between Jan. 1, 2012 and Dec. 31, 2015, the total impact on taxpayers for the pay of all school district employees was an increase “of about 3 percent.”
By contrast, the total impact on taxpayers of pay for borough employees increased by 29 percent in the same period.
“In fact, we’re paying about $2 million more just in wages for borough employees who are providing essentially the same services they were in 2012,” Hylton said.
About $1 million of that increase was in police payroll, which rose 32 percent. The non-uniform employee pay rose by 27 percent, according to a spreadsheet Hylton compiled and shared with The Mercury.
Council Vice President Sheryl Miller disputed at least part of Hylton’s comments.
“The services are not the same now as they were in 2012,” said Miller, noting in particular that the borough had added staff in the licensing and inspections department.
However, an examination of the spreadsheet of W-2 forms Hylton used for his calculations shows that there were 21 fewer W-2 pay-outs for non-uniform employees in 2015 than there were in 2012.
In 2012, the W-2 tax forms indicated 177 borough pay-outs, whereas W-2 forms for non-uniform employees in 2015 numbered only 156.
Paying higher salaries gets even harder when noting that Pottstown’s real estate assessments are lower now than they were 15 years ago, Hylton said.
“Pottstown continues to have more assessment appeals than any other municipality in Montgomery County,” said Hylton.
He noted that like the borough, the school board did not raise taxes this year and plans no tax hike next year.
“If the (school) board is going to give teachers more salary, we’re going to have to figure out how to become more efficient, because the community cannot afford to spend any more tax dollars than it does now,” he said, noting that he was not speaking for the school board, where “I am only one of nine.”
“It’s not a question of whether or not our teachers deserve more money, it’s that we as a community don’t have the money to pay them,” said Hylton.
As for the borough, Hylton said, “I would suggest that we be done with wage increases for borough employees for a long time to come.”
Other than Miller’s comments, no other council members or staff responded to Hylton’s comments.
