County, Township Property Taxes Increase for 2012

You may have noticed, if you're in the habit of paying early for the discount, that both the Delaware County and .

I suspect that our local officials were hoping we wouldn't notice. In their defense, the increases are modest.  Mine worked out to be and 2.7 percent for the township.

I can't speak to how the county increase was handled, but I'm aware of some of the details here in Springfield.

A special meeting was called on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving at which the only items of business were to approve the budget and an ordinance authorizing the increase.  I was one of three folks in the general seating area and I suspect that the other two were working in some capacity in support of the meeting. Copies of the budget were available and although the meeting was short (10 minutes at most), Mr. Rudolph and Mr. Lanciano did take a few minutes to answer my question immediately thereafter.

I can't help but believe that the reason the increase was handled in this manner was to assure that it would be done as quietly as possible. The turnout is evidence that the tactic was successful.

Earlier this year, I visited the township website where minutes of the meetings are posted. I noticed that they were caught up to the end of the year (the postings historically have been further behind). However, the minutes of the special meeting were not posted and still are not as of this writing.

Perhaps it was not the intent of the commissioners to sneak this through without the residents noticing it. But it sure felt like that to me.