DV Journal

How much should Pennsylvania taxpayers be asked to pay to subsidize bus seats and rides on commuter rail?

For advocates of SEPTA on Tuesday, the answer was “more.”

The Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority claims it’s in a budget crisis and is threatening to cut service by 45 percent and raise fares by more than 20 percent unless it gets more state funding. One scenario includes shutting down five Regional Rail lines, including the Paoli/Thorndale line.

Montgomery County Commissioners held a press conference at the Bryn Mawr train station to urge the state to add to the $1 billion budgeted for fiscal year 2026. Add in federal funds and payments from local municipalities, and the system gets more $1.3 billion in subsidies each year.

When the DVJournal asked the amount of additional state money the county commissioners want for SEPTA, Commissioners Chairman Neil Makhija (D), who also serves on the SEPTA board, said the full increase that Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) has in his 2025 budget is $186 million.

Conner Descheemaker, coalition manager with Transit for All PA!, interjected, “$292 million is the investment the governor proposed.”

Makhija jokingly asked Descheemaker if he wanted to take the question.

“There’s a gap that remains,” said Makhija. “The hole is closer to the number Connor mentioned. If we fund the governor’s proposal, SEPTA can be creative. We’ve already found $30 million in savings across the board.”

But Makhija said the state should “dream bigger” when it comes to SEPTA spending, with the goal of providing a train each station every 15 minutes.

“If we had $100 million beyond that, that’s where we get to 15-minute service (and) we bring the regional rail to a place where we’re really planning for the future and building on that.”

Montgomery County Commissioners Jamila Winder (D) and Tom DiBello (R) also lent their voices to support SEPTA, as did the commissioners from Lower Merion.

SEPTA’s 2024 ridership was just over 256 million, which means taxpayers chipped in more than $5 per ride to help cover costs. The proposals offered on Tuesday would increase that even more.

Last year, Shapiro took $153 million in federal funds earmarked for roads and gave that as a bailout for SEPTA. The collar counties also gave SEPTA $22.95 million more. Then, on April 18, SEPTA announced a $213 million deficit and possible cuts in services and fare increases.

Asked if they supported Republican House minority Leader Jesse Topper’s bill calling for a private entity to take over SEPTA’s buses, Makhija shot it down.

“The formation of SEPTA began because seven different agencies went bankrupt that were private,” he said.

He also rejected the idea that riders should pay the cost of the services they use.

“As is the case around the country, public transit has to be public because there are so many beneficiaries, not just the people who are swiping the card to get on the train. The people who work at all the businesses those riders are getting to also benefit,” Makhija said.

“We can’t operate from a place that it’s the riders who pay their way. That’s not the case anywhere in the country for transit systems. We need a state investment on the order and magnitude we’re talking about.”

Bryn Mawr College President Wendy Cadge said an average of 1,000 Bryn Mawr students use their college-funded SEPTA pass each month, out of 1,750 students. Faculty and staff also use SEPTA to get to work and other places.

“I can safely say that Bryn Mawr College loves SEPTA,” she said. Students get to jobs and internships, she said. If the Bryn Mawr station closes, it will “make it much harder for our students and community partners to work together.”

Montgomery County Community College President Victoria Bastecki-Perez said the college trains the area’s workforce, including nurses and first responders, who are “essential to the vitality and well-being of our community.”

She said many students rely on trains and buses to get to their campuses in Pottstown and Blue Bell.

“For many of our students, SEPTA is more than just a transit system. It’s a lifeline,” she said. “It connects them to  classes, their jobs, childcare, internships, and essential services, and ultimately the better life they are working so hard to build.”

“SEPTA just doesn’t move people,” Basticki-Perez added, “It moves dreams forward.”

Critics say the system is a money pit and that the steady call for more spending is a band-aid.

“SEPTA’s predictability is only outdone by its mismanagement and dreadful performance,” Nate Benefield and Andrew Holman of the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free market think tank, wrote in a recent editorial.

Olivia Loudon, a Bryn Mawr student, said SEPTA is “part of the reason I chose Bryn Mawr.”

“There’s a stereotype about the regional rail and the Main Line, that we’re a bunch of yuppies who only take SEPTA because we can’t be bothered to gas up the Lexus. But that’s not true. We’re students. We’re teachers. We’re nurses, doctors, we’re business owners. We’re local people who want access to the city that we love and depend on so much.”

Descheemaker noted that in 2026, many events “of global import” will be held in Philadelphia and the region to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, and the area will need its public transit system more than ever.

“There’s going to be hotel rooms booked in freakin’ Delaware for the FIFA World Cup!” he said.

Gayle Buckman, who volunteers at a hotel in Pottstown where Montgomery County is paying to house about 40 homeless individuals, is appalled by what she’s seen there.

She shared her concerns with DVJournal.

In January, the Montgomery County Commissioners approved a homeless shelter at the Days Inn in Pottstown. The commissioners appropriated $10 million for homeless shelters from 2025 through 2029.

Commissioner Tom DiBello said after this article was posted that Montgomery County will take control of the hotel as of March 10 and is still awaiting zoning approval to provide “wraparound services” to the residents. The homeless people living there now are being supported by a grant from a philanthropist, he said.

There will be consequences for drug use, prostitution, and other misbehavior, said DiBello.

According to published reports, many of the formerly homeless people living there now had been encamped on Norfolk Southern Railroad property. DVJournal called the hotel to check what they charge for rooms, but they said the motel is “under contract” and no longer open to the public.

Buckman said what’s happening at the hotel isn’t what do-gooders might hope.

“It’s about taking away the incentive of those who were getting jobs and providing a warm and comfortable place to sell drugs, prostitute (themselves), solicit and overdose — instead of leaving them out in the cold to do the same,” said Buckman. “Perhaps I’m naive, and everyone else knew this would happen. But there have to be people who really want help. There have to be some (people) there right now who have gotten worse because it’s all too easy to go room to room to party.

“Providing them three meals is allowing them to sell their food stamps for drugs,” said Buckman. “They are renting their rooms out to drug dealers and pimps. If all of the drugs and sex are for trade, where is the money being made? It has to be going out into the community, probably to our young people.

“So, taxpayer dollars are supporting a rundown hotel for the distribution of drugs and prostitution, with some unwilling residents being solicited for both. “It’s wrong on so many levels,” said Buckman.

A spokeswoman for Montgomery County did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did the Pottstown Borough Manager Justin Keller, Mayor Stephanie Henrick, or Council President Dan Weand.

Modesto Fiume, president of Opportunity House, said none of the formerly homeless clients his nonprofit is working with at the hotel are involved in drugs, prostitution, or other illegal activities.

State Rep. Donna Scheuren (R-Gilbertsville) told DVJournal that “a trusted constituent and former elected official brought to my attention that illegal activity is happening at a hotel in Pottstown.”

Scheuren said her office has contacted the Pottstown Police Department and the Montgomery County Commissioners’ office.

“The taxpayers of Montgomery County did not sign up to pay for prostitution and drug deals in the homeless hotel,” Scheuren added. “If we all agree that people should get a second chance at life, then the county must remove and prosecute criminals dealing drugs and selling sex if anyone in this shelter is going to have a chance at a new start.”

Buckman said that she became a volunteer “primarily for the children and for those who were in this situation through no fault of their own.”

“I’m disillusioned that the people I bought clothes and shoes and work boots for so they could get jobs quit working because they no longer needed a place to live. I was cheering for them working to better themselves! I want the people I have come to care about who live there to have a chance.

“There has been no counseling, or rehab or incentives for them to do better that I have seen. There are too many using this opportunity for criminal behaviors and opening the door for those not living there to utilize the facility for their own criminal use,” said Buckman.

Many people believe what turned Montgomery County from a reliably Republican county to a largely Democratic county was a population shift as people moved from Philadelphia and kept their party affiliation.

But lawyer Bruce L. Castor Jr., who was a county commissioner when the shift happened, says the key moment in Montco’s move from red to blue can be traced back to a single scandal: The 2011 arrest of Board of Commissioners Chairman James R. Matthews on charges of perjury and false swearing to a grand jury.

When Castor, the former DA, first ran for county commissioner in 2007, he wanted former state Rep. Melissa Weber as his running mate. She withdrew from contention after the Montgomery County GOP endorsed Matthews.

“The party stuck me with Matthews,” he said. They both won the general election, with Castor getting the most votes, followed by Democrat Joe Hoeffel, a former congressman, and then Matthews. Castor should have been BOC chairman as the top vote-getter, but Matthews joined Hoeffel to become chair in a power-sharing agreement. In return, Matthews “had to give Hoeffel everything he wanted,” said Castor.

“So, Hoeffel runs the government with huge expenditures, floating big bonds and a lot of expensive spending, spending us into bankruptcy,” said Castor, who voted against that spending.

But Hoeffel blamed the excessive county borrowing on a previous commissioner, Tom Ellis, at a public meeting.

However, in the next election in 2011, the fiscal cliff that Castor had warned about regarding county government spending proved true. And the voters blamed the excessive spending on the Republicans, he said. While Castor was re-elected, his running mate lost. Democrats Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards won, giving Democrats control of the county for the first time in more than 100 years.

In 2010, a friend told Castor that he spotted Matthews’ and Hoeffel’s cars in the parking lot of a diner in East Norriton every Tuesday at breakfast time. Castor asked Stan Huskey, then the editor of The Times Herald, to check it out, and Huskey sent a young reporter, Jenny DeHuff, to investigate. DeHuff, dressed like a college kid with a backpack, sat near Matthews and Hoeffel and took notes as they discussed county business privately, without Castor or members of the public as is required under the Sunshine Act.

“She looked like a 20-year-old Villanova student,” said Castor.

The Times Herald published an article and “that blew the whole thing open.” Then DA Risa Vetri Ferman, now a judge, empaneled a grand jury to investigate, leading to Matthews’ arrest.

Reached by phone to comment, Matthews said he was on the golf course ready to hit a ball and asked DVJournal to call him back.   When DVJournal called him back, Matthews did not answer or return the call.

A judge dismissed the more serious perjury charge. Matthews did not plead guilty to misdemeanor false swearing but was allowed to enter a program for first-time offenders and paid $12,000, serving a year’s probation. Eventually, a judge expunged his criminal record.

Montgomery County has been controlled by the Democrats ever since.

“Eventually, it would have turned (blue) anyway, but it would have been delayed,” said Castor. “If I were running the county with another commissioner that was an ally, we never would have borrowed all that money and put ourselves in that debt.”

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Three Republicans and five Democrats will be on the primary election ballot on May 16, seeking two slots for each party for the November race to fill the three-seat Montgomery County Commissioners Board.

With Democrat Jamila Winder as the only endorsed incumbent in the race, the contest for commissioner is more competitive than it has been for years.

Commissioner Kenneth Lawrence, Jr. is not seeking another term. Republicans Liz Ferry and Tom DiBello gained their party’s endorsement. Republican incumbent Commissioner Joe Gale, who portrays himself as an outsider, did not seek it.

Locally the GOP is operating at a significant voter deficit, with 202,880 registered Republicans to 301,156 Democrats. Voter rolls show 95,653 registered independents or those belonging to other parties.

It is those independent voters that Ferry believes Republicans can sway. She argued Democrats have drifted too far to the left to appeal to most residents.

Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale

“We care about things the normal, working residents of Montgomery County care about,” Ferry told DVJournal.

Ferry is an Upper Dublin Township commissioner, the only Republican on a seven-member board there.

“I’ve been able to get things done,” said Ferry. “That’s my objection to Joe Gale. After seven years, besides voting no, he has no accomplishments. And I’ve been able to get no tax increases budgets passed, reduce expenditures and find innovative ways of doing things. And I think that’s what we need.”

Montgomery County taxes have increased 8 percent this year, 8 percent the previous year, and 5 percent the year before that.

“And again, nobody’s doing the homework to say what’s going on, why costs are increasing, and what can we do not to raise taxes on residents who already are feeling the effects of all the things that happened in the last couple of years, with the pandemic and now inflation,” Ferry said.

DiBello holds a master’s degree in information systems, has worked for large companies, and has owned a small business. He served as Limerick Township auditor from 2006 to 2014 and on the Limerick Board of Supervisors from 2002 to 2004, as well as on the Spring-Ford School Board from 2009 through 2021, where he was president five times.

He described himself as “very involved in the community.”

“Crime is rising throughout the county, carjackings, murders,” DiBello said. “I felt with my background and experience; it was time for me to run for county commissioner and focus on getting the county on the right track again.”

DiBello noted he would be a full-time commissioner and not have another job. He said he would address issues of election integrity, such as ballot-box stuffing, that have arisen in the past few elections. He plans to support military veterans and service members and work to address homelessness in the county.

Echoing DiBello’s remarks about crime, Ferry argued current commissioners had approved a “matrix” to reduce bail so that criminals charged with a crime are released rather than waiting in jail until their trials.

“It’s a more sophisticated version of what Larry Krasner is doing in Philadelphia,” said Ferry. “Bad apples are committing crimes on our communities and then immediately getting out and doing it again.”

Incumbent Joe Gale, meanwhile, said he has consistently voted against tax increases. He also voted against the recent 12 percent increase for commissioners’ salaries and pledged to refuse that pay increase.

First elected in 2015, Gale said he had been a watchdog for the county taxpayers during his tenure as a minority member. He claimed Ferry and DiBello had voted to increase taxes during their time in public office.

Commissioner Jamila Winder

In addition to Winder, Democrats running are Tanya Bamford, Kimberly Koch, Neil Makhija, and Noah Marlier.

Bamford is a Montgomery Township supervisor. Koch is a Whitpain Township supervisor. Makhija is an attorney and executive director for Impact, an Indian American civic organization. And Marlier is the county prothonotary.

Ferry argued that whoever is elected should be singularly focused on the commissioner’s job.

“We need a person who does not plan to run for other offices” and will be devoted to running the county well, she said.

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Governor-elect Josh Shapiro nominated political ally Dr. Val Arkoosh to be the state’s secretary of human services.

Arkoosh, a Democrat who ran for the U.S. Senate last year, was first appointed a commissioner to fill a vacancy in 2015. She also made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2013.

Arkoosh said she was “extremely honored to accept the nomination.”

“As a physician and public health advocate, I spent my career fighting for health care access and affordability for families, and I am deeply honored to be able to continue this fight alongside my friend, Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro,” said Arkoosh. “Working together as Montgomery County commissioners, I saw Gov.-elect Shapiro’s commitment to enhancing the health and well-being of his constituents firsthand. I look forward to advancing the governor-elect’s agenda to ensure vulnerable populations across the commonwealth have the support they need and every Pennsylvanian has equitable, affordable access to health care in their community.”

She added, “I thank Gov.-elect Shapiro for his support and trust in me to continue my track record of delivering equitable, efficient, and data-driven programs and services to the people of Pennsylvania.”

“DHS provides services to care and support Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable individuals and families. As secretary, I will continue the department’s critical work to help Pennsylvanians lead safe, healthy, and productive lives through trauma-informed services. As a physician of more than two decades in Philadelphia teaching hospitals, an advocate for the Affordable Care Act, and the head of Pennsylvania’s third-largest county for nearly eight years, I am fully prepared to lead the commonwealth’s largest government agency.”

“My experience as both a physician and public health professional continues to inform my work. It was front and center as I shepherded Montgomery County’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic through a data and science-driven response, focusing on clear communication and transparency,” said Arkoosh.

Arkoosh leaves behind a big pay hike in commissioners’ salaries she helped push through late last year. In December, Arkoosh and Democrat Commissioner Kenneth Lawrence voted to increase county taxes by 8 percent while giving raises to themselves and other county row officers.

On January 1 commissioners’ salaries jumped from $87,600 to $98,200. The board chair’s salary went from $90,900 to $101,800.

Arkoosh’s handling of COVID wasn’t universally popular. Minority Republican Commissioner Joe Gale called her a hypocrite for criticizing him over handing out flags to put on veteran’s graves at a Conshohocken cemetery before Memorial Day in 2020. He accused her of “mask shaming.”

“You don’t need a mask to put American flags at a cemetery outdoors,” he said. “What you just said was ridiculous…I have been very clear. People should use their own judgment.”

Parent activist Megan Brock tweeted about the Arkoosh nomination, “I think there are few people in the country who worked harder to keep schools closed than Val Arkoosh. She demoralized parents and students. And now she’s going to be the secretary of human services. Many of us predicted this would happen.  Democrats fail up.”

Arkoosh has voted for five tax increases during her eight years as county commissioner. When she was appointed in 2015, the county millage rate was 3.152. It is now 4.627 (including the .39 millage rate for the community college, which was added under her leadership). Taxes have increased 46.8 percent since she took office.

Shapiro and Arkoosh voted to raise Montgomery County property taxes in 2015 and 2016 by 21 percent.

The court wasted no time in announcing the vacancy.

“President Judge Carolyn Tornetta Carluccio, having been formally advised that Commissioner Chair Dr. Valerie A. Arkoosh has resigned her position as Montgomery County Commissioner effective January 17, 2023, hereby directs that anyone interested in filling said vacancy shall deliver a resume and cover letter, including contact information, to the following address on or before January 23, 2023: Michael R. Kehs, Esq., Court Administrator, P.O. Box 311, Courthouse, Norristown, PA [email protected].

Candidates will be expected to be available for interviews at a time to be designated by the court.”

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While Santa Claus is saying ho, ho, ho Montgomery County’s Democrat commissioners are once again saying go, go, go to higher property taxes.

As a result, homeowners will see their 2023 county tax bill soar by eight percent. It will be the fifth rate increase in the last eight years.

Money grabs have become the new normal as Democrat Commission Chair Val Arkoosh has established a long history of raising taxes (see 2016, 2017, 2021, and 2022). But it wasn’t without help. For example, the 2016 tax hike was passed with “yes’’ votes from now Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro and my Republican predecessor on the Board of Commissioners, Bruce Castor.

Truth be told, I am the only Montgomery County Commissioner in over a decade to vote ‘no’ to a tax increase.

And I have done so consistently, as it is my moral and fiduciary duty to be a conservative watchdog for the silent majority who are sick and tired of being fleeced by wasteful and reckless spending.

Speaking of wasteful and reckless spending, I recently voted “no” to a 12 percent pay raise for elected officials and went on the record to refuse participation in the compensation package that the Democrat county commissioners voted to approve. That’s right, I am NOT taking the money.

It is stunning and appalling that my colleagues had the nerve to award themselves a taxpayer-funded salary increase during a time when so many people are out of work and struggling to make ends meet.

The sense of entitlement and greed is overwhelming. In fact, the excess is so rampant that it is nearly impossible to detail the county’s many layers of largesse. The most egregious of which involves the decadent renovation of the justice center in Norristown.

Thanks to spiraling construction costs and countless contract amendments, the price of this boondoggle has already surpassed $400 million. The final tab is anybody’s guess. But what’s for sure is Montgomery County taxpayers will be footing the enormous bill.

In addition to shining a spotlight on extravagant capital budget expenditures, I have also opposed millions of dollars in outrageous spending related to the county’s bloated operating budget – which includes, among other things, a multitude of mail-in voting contracts and woke Diversity, Equity & Inclusion training.

Now is not the time for more of the same. Facing the hurdles of runaway food and energy prices, empty store shelves, and shrinking 401(k)s, the last thing families, retirees and small businesses need is the burden of higher taxes thrown in their faces.

In these uncertain times, Montgomery County residents deserve a voice of sanity. And I will continue to be that voice in an effort to restore common sense and fiscal responsibility to the county courthouse.

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