Birmingham Township supervisors, Monday, voted to oppose a state House bill that would eliminate townships as geopolitical entities. The board voted 3-0 to oppose HB 2431.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, a D-127, of Reading, calls for amending the Pennsylvania Constitution to make counties the baseline government for municipalities. If passed, the bill would make the counties responsible for local land use, personnel, law enforcement, sanitation and other areas that are now part of a municipality’s responsibilities.

“It would eliminate all local governmental units, boroughs, townships and cities,” Caltagirone said.

Birmingham Township Supervisor Bill Kirkpatrick called the idea a “transparent power grab. [It’s] more politics than good policy.”

He said Pennsylvania ranks number one or two in the number of legislators.

“[Pennsylvania] excel[s] at spending more money and having people do less. …There’s no gain for residents of this township.”

The resolution that passed Monday night says townships are “excellent fiscal stewards that have been doing more with less ever since the days of William Penn.”

It says that areas relying on consolidated county-based governments have higher tax burdens and that “no one has ever proven that bigger, centralized government is better or even more cost-effective than township government.”

The resolution is a follow-up to recommendations made by the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.

Caltagirone said there are more than 2,500 municipal governments in the state and that makes things cumbersome for businesses.

“It’s the third highest in the country. Many of the businesses…they don’t like going through all the hoops of all the local municipalities, and that is a problem. That may be one of our detractors as far as attracting additional industries and businesses to Pennsylvania,” Caltagirone said. “

He said several reports, including one from the Brookings Institute, indicate that having many municipal governments is a disincentive for businesses to either expand or come into Pennsylvania.

Caltagirone also sees a cost savings, at least for some municipalities. He said there are places with their own police forces, but they are still paying for state police protection even though the state police don’t patrol their streets.

There would likely be an increase in property taxes paid to the county, he said, but added that would be offset by the fact there would no longer bed a need for townships and boroughs to pay for engineers and lawyers.

For any of this to go into effect, Caltagirone said, the bill would have to pass both houses of the General Assembly in two separate sessions, and then be voted on by the citizenry. It would have to pass by 51 percent of the voters before the constitution could be amended.

He said he knows it won’t go anywhere this legislative session, but said he would reintroduce the bill during the next session.

State Rep; Stephen Barrar, R-160, of Boothwyn, said the idea just trades one form of government for another.

“I think the county form of government we would get as a result of this bill would be very impersonal and I don’t think the cost savings would be anywhere near as great,” he said.