Billable hours

This is serious stuff, folks.
At their April 3 meeting the West Marlborough Township supervisors announced they are considering enacting a 0.5 percent earned income tax on township residents because of the skyrocketing legal and engineering bills that the township has had to shoulder.
If you read my column you'll remember the multiple zoning hearings last year brought by the actions of a group of Springdell residents (Joe and Cathy Huston, Gus and Linda Brown, Lew and Lynn Powell, Bea Cassou, and George Strawbridge) who are waging a vigorous campaign against the Whip Tavern, saying it has a negative impact on the village.
During each of those evening-long hearings the zoning hearing board had a lawyer present as well as a court reporter. The township had its own lawyer. The township's engineer was present for many billable hours.
All of these well-paid professionals were on the clock, and who picks up the tab? We, the township residents, do.
Ask the "Springdell 8" if they think this is fair, and they'll respond that they are township residents, too, and they also have their own attorneys' fees to pay. They say that they just want the zoning rules to be enforced equally, and if the township officials had done their job they wouldn't have to take all of this legal action.
The township in recent months hosted two closed-door meetings between the residents and the Whip to try to put an end to the dispute. Unfortunately, "it's apparent there is little opportunity to reach some sort of settlement between the parties," as Supervisor Bill Wylie announced at the April meeting.
"Something needs to be said about the financial condition of the township," Wylie went on. He said that for many years the township has run "a bare-bones operations" that required low taxes, but things have changed in the past few years.
"Professional fees have increased dramatically," he said. "We've had to borrow from other accounts. Our financial condition has declined, and now we need to look at other sources."
He said the biggest expense was the legal counsel for the zoning hearing board, which in 2011 was "close to $50,000 alone."
"We don't know how to budget for that," he said. "We have no control over that."
He said the earned income tax would raise an estimated $110,000 for the township each year.

"Our back is against the wall," agreed Supervisor Mike Ledyard. "This has made us look like California in terms of our bottom line."
Mr. Ledyard added that in past years legal expenses have been minuscule; in fact, in some years the zoning board did not have a single hearing. "So it comes as a real shock going from zero to 50,000."
(One might fruitfully ask what has spurred such an increase in the number of these hearings, and whether anything could have been done to prevent the situation from going so far.)
There will be a public hearing before any decision on the earned income tax.
As a sage longtime township resident said to me, "The hens are coming home to roost."