New Tax Collector Appointed In Abington Twp.

ABINGTON TOWNSHIP, PA —The township has a new tax collector and her name may be familiar to many.

Karen Sanchez —the wife of State Rep. Ben Sanchez —has been appointed as the township's tax collector and treasurer. She was approved by the Abington Township Board of Commissioners at its Dec. 12 meeting.

She replaces Jay W. Blumenthal as tax collector. Sanchez is responsible for collecting real estate taxes for Abington Township, Montgomery County, and the Abington School District.

Sanchez took the post after serving for nine years as Montgomery County's controller.

Sanchez began her four-year term as a Montgomery County row officer in January 2016 after a resounding victory in her first bid for public office.

Sanchez was re-elected in 2019 and in 2023. In July, 2024, she was elected president of the
Pennsylvania State Association of County Controllers (PSACC).

Sanchez is an experienced business lawyer with a master's degree in business administration. She practices at the law firm of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, where for the past 20 years she has been concentrating on financing, lender liability & workouts, mergers & acquisitions, real estate development, banking, tax, zoning & land use, and corporate matters.

.In her experience, Sanchez has mastered explaining and summarizing complex financial transactions in plain language.

Sanchez has previously served as a Senior Hearing Committee Member for The Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and was selected as a “2013 Lawyer on the Fast Track” by a publication which recognizes future leaders of the Commonwealth’s legal community.

She was also named a “Pennsylvania Rising Star” in 2014, 2013, and 2007, a recognition given to the top up-and-coming lawyers in the state.

Each year since 2006 and continuing through last year, Sanchez was awarded enrollment in the Pro Bono Roll of Honor by the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania as an attorney whose work has been recognized by the judiciary as exemplary for her pro bono work representing children through the Support Center for Child Advocates, her biography states.

Her other honors include the Legal Intelligencer’s 2016 Top Women in Law and Montgomery County’s list of Top Lawyers in 2023.

Sanchez also serves on the board of directors of Family Promise Montco and has previously served on the board of Briar Bush Nature Center.

A lifelong resident, she lives in the township with her husband, State Rep. Ben Sanchez, and their three children.