Is a Tax Hike Coming to Pottstown in 2016?

It's been a while since we had a lengthy borough council meeting, but a budget presentation will usually do the trick and this one was no exception.

And, when you have been through as many as I have, you can usually tell which way its going to go.

When the staff is proposing a 0% tax hike, that is very often the first thing out of their mouth.

When they have potential bad news, the presentation usually starts with the equivalent of "look at all we've accomplished" in an attempt to soften the blow.

And that's what we got Monday night, which is not to say they haven't accomplished a lot -- they have.

For example, already, it has been determined there will be no increase in sewer, water or trash collection rates and the proposed budget would spend nearly $300,000 less than the 2015 budget.

Maybe they figure that once they say "no tax hike" the council members stop paying attention.

Anyway, in addition to the budget -- which outlines how a 3.25% tax hike would be needed to close a budget deficit of more than $250,000 -- there was also a presentation on the final site plan approvals for the old Fecera's project.

Both could come up for votes at Monday night's meeting.

So you should probably brush up on the Tweets from last night's meeting. Here they are: