A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
City Controller Christian Zale on Monday pressed his case, again, to City Council: Unless the city makes some drastic changes, it’s facing a $35 million cumulative deficit by 2017.
However, those changes can’t include bigger property tax hikes; Zale said his projection already assumes the city raises the property tax by 5 percent in each of the next four years.
But he said the tax increases cut the deficit by only $10 million. Without them, the deficit rises to $45 million.
“Me being conservative, I tried to be as gloomy as I could,” Zale told council. “And quite frankly, I don’t want to hear (that) we’ll approach that and try to solve it when that time comes.”
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