PALMER TWP., Pa. – Tax hikes and higher fees continue to cause frustration in the Lehigh Valley and beyond.<\/p>\n
“People are really struggling,” said Phil Quirk of Easton.<\/p>\n
Taxes seemingly on the up and up for people across the region, leaving no end in sight.<\/p>\n
In Northampton County, Quirk said he notices the trend when he volunteers at a local food pantry.<\/p>\n
“We’ve gone in the space of like a year, year and a half. We’ve gone from getting maybe 10 people a night to getting 20-25,” said Quirk.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Palmer Township residents are seeing a spike in their utility bills.<\/p>\n
“I saw something went up like almost doubled or something like that,” said Quirk.<\/p>\n
The township announced quarterly base sanitary sewer rates are jumping by 65% to cover service cost increases.<\/p>\n
Officials said they recognize the difficulty for residents, but their old sewer rates were not keeping pace with the cost of the providing service.<\/p>\n
The increase is growing frustrations.<\/p>\n
One resident commented on social media in part, “I am trying to support a family of four. All the bills went up, all of them.”<\/p>\n
Another added, “The problem is that the cost everything increasing… and a week’s notice is insufficient for some households. Particularly when families are getting ready to go back to school and every penny counts.”<\/p>\n
Additionally, the township’s budget for this year increased property taxes by 13%.<\/p>\n
Palmer officials said they will regularly review sewer revenues and expenses.<\/p>\n
If anyone has questions, they are encouraged to contact the administrative office.<\/p>\n
It’s one of many municipalities around the state dealing with higher taxes and fees.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Easton Area School District adopted a budget with a 3.5% tax increase, affecting not only homeowners in Palmer Township but neighboring Forks Township and the city. \u2002\u2002<\/p>\n
Experts said many school districts and municipalities this year faced significant deficits and growing operational costs.<\/p>\n
According to statistics from the Independent Fiscal Office, the 2024-2025 fiscal year marked the largest annual increase in school district property taxes since 2007 and 2008.<\/p>\n
“I just hope things change,” Quirk said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALMER TWP., Pa. – Tax hikes and higher fees continue to cause frustration in the Lehigh Valley and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,153,155,154,6290],"class_list":["post-269943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-easton-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269943","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=269943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}