{"id":20113,"date":"2025-10-30T20:57:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/20113\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T20:57:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:57:22","slug":"court-torpedoes-upper-darbys-eit-for-2025-saying-it-was-improperly-approved-delco-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/20113\/","title":{"rendered":"Court torpedoes Upper Darby\u2019s EIT for 2025, saying it was improperly approved \u2013 Delco Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A court ruling has stopped Upper Darby Township from enacting its planned earned income tax, known as an EIT, for the upcoming year.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a recent ruling, Common Pleas Judge Spiros E. Angelos invalidated the township\u2019s Sept. 4 ordinance that enacted the EIT because it violated the township\u2019s home rule charter.<\/p>\n

Angelos\u2019 ruling also invalidated a township ordinance limiting public speaking time during public hearings, which also passed at that meeting.<\/p>\n

In his one-page ruling, Angelos said the ordinances were made at the first of two September meetings, which are intended to be a workshop format meeting where final action is discouraged and reserved for emergency circumstances only.<\/p>\n

This is the second year the EIT has been torpedoed<\/a> in the waning days of the year.<\/p>\n

The tax can only be enacted at the beginning of the year so is off the table for 2025. The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development<\/a> requires that it must be notified of the rate of a local services tax by Dec. 1 of the year prior.<\/p>\n

Council President Hafiz Tunis Jr. said he was disappointed by the judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\"UpperUpper Darby Township Council President Hafiz Tunis Jr. at the Upper Darby International Festival earlier this year. (KATHLEEN E. CAREY – DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis harms the community,\u201d Tunis said. \u201cI look at the community as being hurt overall. We\u2019re still working on how we can move forward on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the township administration scrambled over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to address the ruling and the impact on the 2025 budget, the township missed the Monday deadline to post and advertise the agenda for Wednesday\u2019s council meeting, which was canceled as a result.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tunis said the township will reschedule that meeting and, as of now, the EIT is not on the agenda.<\/p>\n

As of Thursday, council has a committee meeting planned for Monday with a regular meeting on Dec. 18 and a special meeting on Dec. 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, we will look at our finances,\u201d Tunis said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to get creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council member Andrew Hayman (D-5th District), chair of the Finance and Appropriations Committee, also voiced displeasure with the decision and placed blame on Republicans, saying the lawsuit they orchestrated was frivolous.<\/p>\n

He also believes hiring five additional police officers to the force \u2014 as was called for in the budget \u2014 is in jeopardy as a direct result of the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed with the judge\u2019s ruling. The local GOP, which seems incapable of crafting an actual vision for our community, is waging lawfare against Upper Darby,\u201d Hayman said in an email. \u201cI said this years ago, but the harm that this does to our town is not an unintended consequence of their actions. It is the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re partnering with someone who they themselves noted calls law enforcement terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to comment, Councilman Brian Andruszko (R-3rd District), said he was glad the judge is upholding the home rule charter.<\/p>\n

\"Andruszko\"Andruszko<\/p>\n

\u201cI am glad that the Judge Angelos is ensuring the rules of the Upper Darby Home Rule Charter are being followed,\u201d Andruszko said in his email. \u201cI am not aware of any action planned in response to this ruling, but I do hope that the ordinance is reconsidered before attempting to bring it back to the table. I am not in support of the EIT.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second ordinance that was invalidated limited public times during a public hearing section of a meeting to 5 minutes for up to 30 minutes or up to an hour, if agreed on by council.<\/p>\n

At that meeting, resident John DeMasi, as well as Councilwoman Meaghan Wagner questioned the legality of that measure, saying it was a violation of the home rule charter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is completely illegal and in violation of the home rule charter,\u201d Wagner said at that September meeting. \u201cUndersection 702 procedure, \u2018all persons interested in shall \u2014 not may, not can, shall \u2014 be heard at the public forum.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said the ordinance could result in just 12 people in a town of 90,000 having the opportunity to speak on a topic.<\/p>\n

DeMasi, who was one of the seven residents who brought the suit to court, agreed and during the public comment of that meeting also pointed out that the first meeting of the month is a workshop meeting.<\/p>\n

DeMasi and his group have successfully pushed back against council before.<\/p>\n

In January they pointed out an accounting error<\/a> that would have made real estate taxes a fraction of their assessed rate and just this past month they successfully sued to stop the township<\/a> from taking back promised ARPA funds from the Upper Darby Art Foundation.<\/p>\n

In an interview Thursday, DeMasi said attempts to limit residents from speaking is wrong and was motivation for him to file suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll they had to do was respect our rights and let us speak under the law. They decided to break the law,\u201d DeMasi said. \u201cWe have the right to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeMasi, who has lived in Upper Darby for 19 years, said his group had only 30 days to put together and file the suit, which he said that not being a lawyer was challenging.<\/p>\n

He said he began to take particular interest in council activities after attempts to limit community organizer Richard Blye, who though active in veterans groups in Upper Darby, wasn\u2019t permitted to speak after disruptive behavior\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t stop people from talking,\u201d DeMasi said.<\/p>\n

He added when that happens, other things may be going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the only thing they do,\u201d he said without explanation. \u201cIt\u2019s only the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were quashing speech,\u201d he also added. \u201cThey did it to him and they did it to me. This is all on (solicitor) Sean Kilkenny and the mayor. All they had to do is follow the law, and respect residents\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine how much he (Kilkenny) got paid to create this disaster,\u201d DeMasi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A court ruling has stopped Upper Darby Township from enacting its planned earned income tax, known as an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[46,212,241,182,139,28,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-20113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-courts","tag-delaware-county","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}