Ferguson Township Supervisors Repeal Stormwater Fee

Ferguson Township is scrapping a controversial fee enacted more than three years ago to pay for stormwater management requirements.

Township supervisors voted 3-2 on Tuesday to repeal the stormwater utility management fee after multiple lengthy discussions and public comment over the past two months. Supervisors Lisa Strickland, Jeremie Thompson and Matt Heller voted in favor of repealing and Omari Patterson and Patty Stephens voted against, saying they would prefer to amend the ordinance.

The decision came after township staff and consultants said the complicated ordinance had been burdensome and costly to administer, and as residents continued to voice concerns that the fee was unfairly applied.

The motion to repeal the fee also included that the board will "discuss revenue diversification with a specific revenue strategy discussion for the 2025 operating budget," during its special meetings to review next year's draft budget on Oct. 24 and 29.

"We will still be able to tackle improving the infrastructure that we have been working toward, just enveloped within our roads maintenance program," Strickland, the board chair, said.

The Board of Supervisors adopted the stormwater utility management fee ordinance in February 2021 "to develop solutions to our water quality and stormwater control challenges," largely stemming from the requirements of Pennsylvania's Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) program requirements. MS4, which administers requirements of the federal Clean Water Act, establishes a half dozen minimum control measures for reducing the discharge of pollutants and protecting water quality. It is, as some supervisors said, an "unfunded mandate."

The stormwater utility fee was based on the amount of impervious area on a property and was intended to fairly distribute the cost of stormwater services, with credits and exemptions built in. But some residents said that wasn't the case.

Farm and other rural property owners said they aren't on and don't contribute to the municipal stormwater system, that their land provides natural runoff management and that they were not given credit for investments they made in mitigating runoff. Some have also continued to take issue with how the ordinance was passed, with only virtual meetings being held for the discussions and presentations leading up to its adoption amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Among about 70 comments regarding the fee submitted online 65 were "what could be considered a non-favorable opinion," Thompson said.

"This was one of those very bad decisions that I think was foisted on supervisors without them realizing what this entailed," longtime township resident Dan Barker said during Tuesday's meeting. "And it's turned out to be a very expensive exercise in doing something that shouldn't have been done."

Earlier in Tuesday's meeting, Laurence Christian, of the township's strategic management plan consultant Strategic Solutions, touched on the fee during a management audit report.

"Simplify it or remove it entirely and go for a [real estate] millage rate increase," Christian said. "The workload on the administrative staff, the finance staff, the public works staff is far greater than what you’re getting out of that particular fee."

Township Manager Centrice Martin said the ordinance, which was developed prior to her tenure as manager, was "well-intended" and the product of much hard work. But a series of 17 credits and exemptions "created a very complex ordinance."

"I can appreciate that the board at the time took all of that into consideration to implement these resolutions with hardships, exemptions and credits," Martin said. "But with that also came a lot of administrative burden, and there's a cost. There's an indirect cost associated with that."

She presented the board with four possible options: do nothing, suspend the fee until 2030, rescind the ordinance or amend it at a later date to simplify it.

"I certainly think that if the board decides to keep it, we need to simplify it," Martin said. "... But simplifying it, I'm not sure, is really even where we need to be right now. My recommendation at this time would be to consider repealing the ordinance."

All five supervisors agreed the ordinance was too complex.

Heller, who made the motion to repeal it, also said that it was a financial burden for residents.

"Residents are being squeezed — the impacts of high inflation, the high cost of groceries, we're about to see an increase in our garbage collection here across the Centre Region," Heller said, adding that, although the township has the lowest real estate tax rate in the Centre Region, it has the highest earned income tax.

No other Centre Region municipalities have a stormwater fee despite having to meet the MS4 requirements, he noted. Ferguson Township does have more miles of stormwater utilities than others in the region, and it has committed to infrastructure investments, he said.

"But these answers always fall flat when folks simply take a look at the black and white numbers ... that show we're already paying the highest earned income tax rate," Heller said. "When you couple the squeeze our residents feel and their collective voice about the stormwater fee, as we've seen in the feedback, we have an opportunity to do something tonight that will ease their burden."

Stephens said the ordinance could be simplified, but that stormwater management "is probably going to be one of our larger costs in the future," and the fee was a tool to provide the revenue for it. She added that the 70 people who submitted comments are a small portion of the more than 19,000 residents of the township.

Patterson expressed similar sentiments, saying he went around several non-rural neighborhoods asking for opinions and was met with mostly indifferent responses.

"I believe everyone needs to chip in, period. No exceptions, no carveouts. Everyone gets to chip in for this unfunded [MS4] mandate," Patterson said. "... Simplify it. If there's too many words, remove words, start slicing and make it simple. Everybody pays a little something."

With the repeal in motion, how specifically the township will fund stormwater infrastructure needs will be the subject of discussion in the coming weeks.

Tom Songer, president of real estate developer the Torron Group, said a small millage increase is an option for the township, which has not raised real estate taxes since 2006.

"[The stormwater fee] is really seen by property owners as a nuisance tax and it affects both residential and non-residential property owners," Songer said. "And I think most people, if you polled them, would rather see a tax increase rather than have this fee. And it would be so much easier to administer. There would be no administration costs, really."

Farm owner Ronald Gilligan, however, returned to the argument that property owners who do not contribute to the municipal stormwater system should not have to pay for it.

"I don't agree with getting taxed for a stormwater fee that doesn't affect 90% of us," he said. "... None of this has any bearing on us."

The township, Heller said, will develop a "right-sized" budget for 2025 to reflect the lost revenue, but will need to develop long-term solutions.

"We have a limited number of budget cycles to identify sustainable solutions to offset the lost revenue," Heller said. "Luckily, we have enough money in the kitty to offset our current commitments... I believe the answers to how we meet the MS-4 requirements are in this room, and that we should lean on the expertise of residents, staff and the electeds. We're all in the same boat, and collectively, I think we can identify some solutions."

Thompson said he is confident the township will continue to meet its stormwater infrastructure needs.

"We will still address stormwater management in the township," Thompson said. "We've done it with the ordinance and I'm sure we'll do it without the ordinance. It may not be as aggressive as what we had put in that ordinance initially, but we will continue to keep up with our infrastructure and meet the MS4 permits."

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