POTTSTOWN PA – We’re not alone.

No, this isn’t about life on other worlds, but it does reference something almost everyone wishes was just as alien … taxes.

Pottstown Borough Council, like some other municipalities, on Tuesday (Nov. 30, 2010) decided it could not avoid raising property taxes next year. A few surrounding or nearby townships are luckier; they pledged no tax increase: Limerick, Lower Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove, New Hanover, and East Coventry among them.

To offer some perspective on what area municipalities are facing, consider these:

• Pottstown Authority increases base fee for water by 40% (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  The base rate that water customers pay, no matter how much water they use, will increase by 40 percent under the $5.9 million water budget adopted in a 3-1 vote by the Pottstown Borough Authority. The current base rate is $25 per quarter. Under the adopted budget that will increase to $35 per quarter or $140 per year.

• No Change In Town’s 2011 Base Tax Rate, But Bills To Rise Slightly (Sanatoga PA Post)
  Base property taxes remain unchanged under Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township‘s tentative 2011 budget, but the fire protection tax would rise a bit.

• Royersford budget proposal would increase taxes 17.5% (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  Royersford (PA) Borough property taxes would increase by more than 17.5 percent under the draft $3.4 million budget Borough Council was due to review Nov. 30. Manager Michael Leonard said the 1 mill tax hike being contemplated is due largely to the necessity of making up a $400,000 hole in the budget.

• Sewer rates to go up 11% while taxes stay same (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  Although property taxes will not increase in the $1.6 million tentative budget on which the Spring City (PA) Borough Council is expected to vote, anyone who flushes a toilet will pay about $40 more per year starting in July.

• Limerick dips into reserve fund to avoid tax hike (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  Limerick (PA) Township officials have decided to use more than three-quarters of a million dollars in reserve funding to keep the $13.7 million township 2011 budget from requiring a tax hike next year.

• New Hanover lays off cop to avoid raising property tax (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  New Hanover (PA) Township taxpayers will enjoy another year without a tax increase in 2011 — but this time it comes at a cost — a cost paid by the township’s newest police officer.

• Upper Pottsgrove holding line on taxes for 2011 (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  There will be no property tax hike or increase in sewer rates under the 2011 budget adopted by Upper Pottsgrove (PA) Township commissioners. If unchanged, it will be the second consecutive year that the township has adopted a budget with no tax increases.

• Residents don’t want police cuts in budget (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  It was standing-room-only inside Phoenixville (PA) Borough Hall as law enforcement officials and residents came out in full force to inform Borough Council of their support for local police. The council’s finance committee asked the police department to trim its budget by $200,000, which could mean the potential loss of two officers.

• No property tax hike in new East Coventry budget proposal (Pottstown PA Mercury)
  The 2011 budget presented to the East Coventry (PA) Township Board of Supervisors does not call for a property tax increase; however, working people in town will see a bigger bite out of their paychecks as a result of an open space referendum passed in the general election.

• Amity considers sewage fee increase (Community-Buzz.com)
  Amity (PA) Township supervisors approved advertising their new budget, which required $140,000 from the general fund to make up for a shortfall. They also considered, but did not act on, a sewage fee increase of $5 a quarter to generate additional money for the sewer fund.