DV Journal

As Delaware County residents face the potential of a 23 percent property tax hike, they’re also confronting a fiscal reality: the Democrat-led county government has a structural deficit of at least $27 million.

For 2021, the first year Democrats controlled the council, it cost $246.5 million to run the government.

Democrats estimate it will cost $321.4 million budget this year.

Delaware County operating costs from 2021 to 2025. (Source: Delaware County documents)

That $75 million hike in government spending — about 30 percent higher — highlights growing reliance on federal aid. Specifically, the $200 million the county received in federal COVID relief money.

At last week’s county council meeting, County Executive Director Barbara O’Malley blamed inflation and a lack of tax hikes for the county’s fiscal challenges. She said it was no longer possible to rely on the federal government for a COVID spending bailout.

“It was eventually going to end anyway, and we have to balance our budget year after year after year,” she said.

Real estate tax collections averaged $176.1 million annually from 2021-2024. That included last year’s 5 percent tax hike. It reflected modest growth in revenue compared to soaring expenditures.

Former Delaware County Council Chair Wallace Nunn told DVJournal this year’s proposed property tax hike would hurt residents.

“When I was on the council, myself and the other council people agonized over every dollar we spent. We also understood that every dollar we increased taxes, took a dollar away from the school districts, a dollar away from the police department, (and) a dollar away from the streets,” he said.

A review of previous budget documents shows spending rapidly expanded in 2020, even before inflation shot up during the Biden-Harris administration.

When the Democrat-led county council prepared its first budget for 2021, it blamed Republicans for a $23 million budget deficit. Budget documents warned of a 7-percent budget cut.

It turned out no budget cuts were necessary. The federal government sent Delaware County more than $100 million in COVID relief that year. Budget documents show the government used $40 million to “cover qualifying labor costs.”

As for the council’s claim that the GOP caused the deficit, the controller’s office later suggested it was due to “state mandated shutdowns in March [of 2020]” from the pandemic and low interest rates.

Flush with cash, the county government increased spending. Elections received $3 million more than initially requested to hire more workers and expand facilities. The Executive Director’s Office justified its $150,000 in new expenses by saying, “Vacant positions have been converted to provide for new executive positions.”

Going into the 2022 budget preparations, the county kept $41 million in federal taxpayer funds in the General Fund. The county then received another $100 million federal cash infusion from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

That led to additional spending.

More than $40 million went toward creating the Delaware County Health Department. Budget documents show the county used ARPA funding to cover some of the health department’s operating costs. The department cost $8.5 million in 2021. For the 2025 budget, the Health Department is expected to cost $18.3 million.

Another massive project? The de-privatization of the George W. Hill Correctional Facility. Budget documents show the county used $50 million “on a one-time basis” to fund operations in 2021. “The long-term forecast assumes that the cost of operating the prison as a county agency will decrease due to efficiencies gained,” county officials promised.

That hasn’t come to pass. This year, the county estimated prisoner costs were more than $59 million.

Not everyone on the county council desires increased property taxes.

County Council Vice Chair Richard Womack suggested the government establish a commission to study government operations. “Let’s see what we can do to help bring in resources where we can make different cuts and strategic cuts,” he said last week.

Nunn said the council’s strategy of ‘spend first, tax later’ is no way to run the government.

“Today’s council is driven by progressive ideology, and in order to achieve that progressive ideology, they are imposing the most regressive tax they can on their constituents,” he said.

The proposed budget will be discussed at a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Once upon a time, Michelle Mattus was a Democrat, shaking hands with former President Bill Clinton. She was in her 20s, living in Manhattan with Rudy Giuliani as mayor when she switched sides.

She liked Giuliani’s policies, which made her feel safe to walk in what were the once-dangerous streets of the Big Apple. Under Giuliani’s Democratic successors, those New York streets became dangerous again.

Republicans care about public safety, police, and other first responders.

“Show me a Republican that doesn’t care about first responders. Every Republican cares about that. That’s not unique about me or my campaign,” said the 48-year-old Mattus, a graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, who has spent the past couple of decades as a registered Republican.

Rep. David Delloso

She believes she is the best choice for the 162nd District and would take the views of her constituents to Harrisburg.

“It’s a personal decision who you’re voting for in November. (Voters) need to be able to trust the person who’s representing their voice. It’s not the Michelle Mattus show,” she said.

Mattus, a Ridley Park Borough councilwoman, is running against incumbent state Rep David Delloso.

Delloso did not respond to the DVJournal’s repeated requests for an interview.

However, during an hour-long interview, Mattus talked candidly about her upbringing and platform.

She is the daughter of a physicist and an English teacher. She is treating the campaign as a job interview with the voters. And though she doesn’t have much time for it anymore, she has an undying love for art, having designed her campaign literature.

“Arts were valued just as highly as sciences in my home,” Mattus said. “It was actually something that my father, an incredibly intelligent man, felt like of all the problems he could solve. Creating out of nothing is not something he could do. It wasn’t seen as less than or frivolous. I like the problem-solving of art. Looking at things holistically and then digging in,”

Mattus’ professional career is as diverse as her politics. She bounced from art to working for nonprofits before marrying into a family that worked in the insurance industry.

Naturally, she switched over to that.

And then she entered the world of politics, where she saw firsthand that the problems faced by constituents during the COVID-19 pandemic weren’t abstract.

Lockdowns shuttered businesses across the country, and many that survived are still recovering. Kids were out of school for almost two years, and their test scores plummeted. Ridley Park wasn’t immune from the ills of the pandemic.

Mattus, who has worked in risk management, witnessed the struggles of mom-and-pop businesses to stay afloat in trying times. Many of the same clients she helped as an insurance risk advisor.

Sweeping state mandates tied local officials’ hands, so sometimes all Mattus could offer was a sympathetic ear.

“I have hugged them as they cried, not seeing any end in sight to the ever-changing restrictions destroying their livelihood,” she said on her website.

“I will never forget facing that fear, uncertainty, and frustration with our business owners.”

Now she wants to craft legislation that makes a difference for her community that, like much of the nation, is suffering from inflation and high property taxes.

Residents whose families lived in the area for generations are being priced out of the area.

“That’s just not right,” she said.

And yet it is still hard to get Democrats and Republicans to agree on much of anything these days.

But Mattus said she hopes to do her part to mend that divide. And she might have the credentials to do it, having once had a stake in both parties.

She has split her ticket before as a voter and said she is not afraid to do that in the legislature. Whoever presents the best ideas and proposes common-sense measures gets her vote if elected, regardless of party, Mattus pledged.

“There’s too much fighting in politics. Everything is so ugly. Act like adults in office and know why we’re there,” Mattus said.

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