Erica Deuso will be Pennsylvanias first openly transgender mayor. She won Tuesday’s contest to lead Downingtown after a campaign focused on bread-and-butter local issues in the face of attacks to her identity.
The longtime Democratic advocate who works in management at a pharmaceutical company earned 64% of the vote as of Wednesday morning defeating Republican Rich Bryant who had 35% of the vote to serve as the next mayor of Downingtown, a Chester County borough of roughly 8,000 people.
“Voters chose hope, decency, and a community where every neighbor matters,” Deuso said in a statement at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. “I am honored to be elected as Pennsylvania’s first openly transgender mayor. I carry that responsibility with care and with purpose.”
Deuso joins a small but growing rank of transgender officials in Pennsylvania and nationwide. There are 52 out transgender elected officials across the United States and three in Pennsylvania, all who govern at the local level , according to the Victory Institute, the research arm of the Victory Fund, which supports LGBTQ+ candidates and backed Deuso.
While her gender identity attracted attention, and online vitriol, Deuso’s campaign didn’t dwell on it. Instead she prioritized public safety, sustainable growth and community in the historic borough now home to Victory Brewing.
She ran with the support of the borough’s last two mayors, Democrats Phil Dague and County Commissioner Josh Maxwell.
Bryant, a retired cybersecurity expert, argued he was better experienced for the job, which primarily leads the borough police department. But Bryant faced accusations of bigotry as Deuso posted screenshots online of her opponentmaking misogynistic and transphobic remarks on X, (Bryant said 90% of the posts were AI-generated,but offered no proof.)
In a statement, Bryant congratulated Deuso and pledged to continue working to serve the community.
“To those who voted differently, I respect your decision and share your hope for a stronger, safer, and more united Downingtown. I will continue to serve, to listen, and to advocate for responsible growth, fiscal transparency, and accountable local leadership,” he said.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Democrats swept two law enforcement races in Bucks County, ousting the incumbents and signalingthe swing county has soured on President Donald Trump just a year after voting for him.
Democrat Danny Ceisler, an Army veteran who held a public safety role in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration, led Republican Sheriff Fred Harran by 12 percentage points with all precincts reporting Wednesday morning. The sheriff race centered on Harran’s controversial decision to partner his agency with ICE as Trump ramps up immigration enforcement nationwide.
And former Bucks County Solicitor Joe Khan led Republican District Attorney Jen Schorn by eight percentage points. Democrats believe Khan is the first member of their party to ever be elected to the office.
Bucks County Democrats declared victory just after midnight Wednesday morning — sweeping every countywide race. The victories came in what appeared to be a blue wave election as voters rejected Republican candidates in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia.
“What’s going on with our federal government is not normal, and voters saw that creeping into local offices, and they overwhelmingly rejected it,” Ceisler said Wednesday. “Bucks County doesn’t let extremism come inside.”
The hotly contested Bucks County races centered on some of the most contentious issues in national politics — Trump, crime, and immigration. Democrats sought to paint the incumbents as Trumpian ideologues, while Republicans warned voters of an influx of “Philly crime” if Democrats took office, even as the violent crime rate in the city has dropped from its pandemic peak.
Voters opted for a change, delivering both offices to Democrats and, as result, spelling the end to a controversial partnership between the sheriff’s office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Bucks was the only county in the Philadelphia area to go for Trump last year and will be a key battleground in 2026 when Shapiro runs for reelection. Tuesday’s wins will give Democrats momentum going into the midterms.
Democrats, Khan said, had to work to prove to voters they could be trusted with public safety. They were aided by a favorable dynamic as voters rejected Trumpism.
“It was a campaign not about attacking somebody else but, really, making really clear that we deserve better than what we’ve got,” Khan said.
Voters at the polls persistently expressed frustration with Trump, and a sense that anyone from his party should not be trusted in office.
“They’re subject to his control, regardless of how they feel on issues,” said Stephanie Kraft of Doylestown. “And that affects everything, from our local courts on up to the higher courts in the state.”
The effort succeeded, indicating that Bucks voters are already disenchanted with the president they voted for just a year ago. The vote may set off alarm bells among Republicans as they prepare for next year’s election, when Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity seeks to oust Shapiro and Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick stands for reelection.
The Democratic victory is “on everything that Trump is doing to undermine the institutions of democracy, but it’s also on Trump’s failure to really reverse inflation,” said State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, the chair of the Bucks County Democratic Party.
Even so, for several voters, Harran’s partnership with ICE was the final straw.
Jill Johnson worried it would result in the targeting of Latino citizens, including her half-Mexican son, who is away at college.
“My biggest fear is that someone in a mask is going to come up and grab him because they think he’s here illegally,” Johnson said. “It’s scary. These are law-abiding people who have done nothing wrong.”
The partnership, which recently became active after months of planning, provoked backlash, including a lawsuit, public demonstrations outside the courthouse, and a repudiation by the Democratic-led board of commissioners.
Ceisler said Wednesday that he will issue a moratorium barring deputies’ cooperation with ICE on his first day in office. From there, he said, he will figure out how to disentangle the sheriff’s office from the agreement signed by his predecessor.
For his part, Harran said Wednesday that Ceisler will “have to answer for a person who becomes victimized by an individual that should have been deported. And he’ll have to sleep with that, and it’ll be on his head, not mine.”
Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment.
Harran, an outspoken Republican who endorsed Trump last year and frequently clashes with the Democratic commissioners, was elected sheriff in 2021 after more than a decade leading Bensalem’s police department.
The Republican has expanded the role of the sheriff’s department, adding a K-9 unit and partnering with immigration officials, but faced criticism that he was failing to complete the basic duties of his job, such as executing warrants and protecting the courthouse.
Ceisler advocated taking politics out of the office, saying he would focus on domestic violence and pledging to end the partnership with ICE. He argued his experience in the Army and in a public safety leadership post under Shapiro prepared him to serve as sheriff — though Harran argued Ceisler would be unprepared for the job, having never worked in a sheriff’s office or police department.
“Being the sheriff isn’t on-the-job training,” Harran said at a Bristol polling place Tuesday. “You need knowledge and experience.”
Ceisler said he had spoken to Harran after the results came in and the incumbent promised to assist with a smooth transition.
Schorn, a veteran Bucks County prosecutor, lost in her bid for a full term after being appointed district attorney last year when her predecessor became a judge.
She had been an assistant district attorney in the county since 1999, prosecuting some of the county’s most high-profile cases. When she became district attorney, Schorn started a task force in the county to investigate internet crimes against children.
Khan, a former county solicitor and federal prosecutor, argued Schorn ran the office under “Trump’s blueprint” and criticized her decisions not to recuse herself when a Republican committeeperson was charged with voter fraud and not to prosecute alleged child abuse at Jamison Elementary School.
Schorn has said she was unable to discuss the details of the Jamison Elementary School case due to rules governing prosecutors, but Khan argued her explanations were insufficient as parents sought answers.
Schorn performed slightly better than her GOP counterparts in Bucks County on Tuesday. But, while many voters said they had no issue with Schorn’s policies, her political party was a turnoff.
“I just feel the Democrats would be better right now; I’m down on all Republicans,” said Marybeth Vinkler, a Doylestown voter who said she had no problems with how Schorn had run the district attorney’s office. “Everything happening in D.C. is trickling down around us.”
Schorn did not immediately comment on the results Wednesday.
Jim Worthington, who has run pro-Trump organizations in Bucks County, said Republicans failed to turn out voters on Election Day even as data showed Democrats held a significant lead on mail voting ahead of Tuesday.
“This is where the GOP was asleep at the wheel,” Worthington said.
Traditionally, voters trust Republicans more with law and order. The resounding victories for Democrats defied that trend.
“We now have an obligation to deliver and to show that Democrats can lead on the issue of safety,” Ceisler said.
“The ball is in our hands, and we’re ready to run with it.”
Staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Independents in Chester County were forcedto cast a provisional ballot through the morning hours and early afternoon on Election Day.
Poll books delivered to Chester County’s precincts Tuesday morning did not include the names of independent and third-party voters, the county’s voter services department said in a post to X. As a result, poll workers were unable to allow those voters to cast ballots on machines as normal.
The county resolved the issue, delivering supplemental poll books to precincts, by 3:45 p.m. Tuesday. In response to the problem, the county extended voting hours by two hours. Voters who arrive at their polling places between 8 and 10 p.m. will have the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot.
Chester County Voter Services has reported that the poll books at all precincts currently do not include the names of third-party voters. Voter Services is in the process of sending supplemental poll books to all polling locations. 1/2
— Chester County Voter Services (@ChescoVoterSvcs) November 4, 2025
Poll books are the records poll workers use to verify that each voter is an eligible voter seeking to cast a ballot in the correct precinct.
Until the supplemental books were delivered, voters were asked to cast provisional ballots.
A provisional ballot is used when poll workers cannot immediately verify the eligibility of a voter. The ballots will be counted, but they are counted later than other votes, as election officials must first verify that the voter is eligible and has not already cast a ballot by mail or at another polling place.
All eligible voters in the county ultimately had the opportunity to cast a ballot and have it be counted.
Just over 75,000 Chester County voters are unaffiliated or registered to vote with a third party. Far fewer voters were likely to be affected by the error, however, as many cast mail ballots ahead of the election and odd-year elections tend to be lower in turnout.
A spokesperson for Chester County said the county will conduct a formal review to determine how unaffiliated and third-party voters were left off poll books and how to prevent it from happening again.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
By most measures, Erica Deuso’s campaign for mayor of Downingtown is unremarkable.
She spends Saturday mornings greeting residents at the farmers market and her weekend days knocking on doors in the Chester County borough. Most of the time, she’s talking about traffic and community events.
Democratic supporters pose with current Downingtown Mayor Phil Dague, center, Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell, center left, and mayoral candidate Erica Deuso, center right.
For most voters, though, those facts didn’t even register.
Deuso, who works in management at a pharmaceutical company, has lived in Downingtown for 18 years.
She is a committeewoman in the local Democratic Party, and board member for Emerge Pennsylvania, which trains women and LGBTQ+ people to run for office. Her platform centers on traffic control, domestic violence, community engagement, and sustainable development.
The Downingtown mayor has relatively limited power, overseeing the police department and acting as a tiebreaking vote on borough council. Deuso has promised not to sign an agreement between Downingtown police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and said she wants to work on enhancing mental health services for officers while expanding their reach in the community to address concerns over traffic violations and e-bikes.
As she knocked on doors on a Saturday morning in October, Deuso’s gender identity rarely came up in her interactions with voters.
“I’m not running on being trans, that’s not something I ever do or ever wanted to do. I wanted to make it about the neighbors,” Deuso said. “It’s the other side making it about who I am, my identity.”
Going door-to-door looking for votes in Downingtown in October, Erica Deuso meets Nicole Flood at her door.
The historic nature of her campaign has likely driven attention and funds to the race. She has earned endorsements from several organizations that back LGBTQ+ and women candidates. And she’s received donations from outside the state and outside Chester County, including a $3,000 donation from Greater Than PAC, which supports progressive women.
But a scan of comments in community Facebook pages shows her identity has also driven more vitriol.
“There are people who refuse to use my correct name or pronouns, they’ve deadnamed me, all those sorts of things. But it’s been 16 years since I transitioned; I don’t really care,” Deuso said. But she’s mindful that LGBTQ+ youth are watching her. She engages in some of the posts, but not all of them.
“I want to handle it with grace.”
Those efforts are already influencing at least one local teen. Nicole Bastida-Moyer, a 39-year-old voter, told Deuso her candidacy had inspired her 14-year-old daughter to volunteer to help other students with their mental health. Both she and her daughter are pansexual.
“She deals with a lot of hate,” Bastida-Moyer said through tears about her daughter.
“Having Erica’s voice, it means a lot,” Bastida-Moyer said.
Nicole Bastida-Moyer gets a hug from Downingtown mayoral candidate Erica Deuso while campaigning in October.
Impact on voters
Deuso responds to comments on her Facebook page and other groups occasionally. She said she tends to do so only when she thinks a true conversation can come of it.
Door-knocking in her neighborhood, Deuso encountered just one voter who appeared to be hostile to her because of her gender identity. When Deuso approached one house, a woman came to the door and glanced at the candidate and her fliers through the screen door without opening it.
“I’m not voting for him,” the woman said. “For who?” Deuso asked as the woman turned and walked away.
Episodes like this are relatively rare, Deuso said
“People are generally much nicer in person than online,” said Jenn Fenn, who managed U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan’s 2024 reelection campaign in a district that includes Downingtown.
Deuso’s opponent, Republican Rich Bryant, says he doesn’t condone those who attack Deuso based on her identity.
But Deuso has shared several screenshots on social media that appear to show Bryant insulting transgender women and making misogynistic remarks about cisgender women. At a canvass launch at the local farmers market, the township’s current mayor, Democrat Phil Dague, referenced these posts while comparing Bryant to Trump.
Current Downingtown Mayor Phil Dague talks with supporters for Erica Deuso listening at right. Saturday October 18, 2025.
Bryant claimed 90% of these posts are AI-generated but refused to say which posts are real and which are fake.
“I don’t like mud-slinging misinformation,” Bryant said. “I try to stay focused on what’s good for Downingtown.”
Rich Bryant is running as a Republican for Downingtown mayor.
He sought to present himself as better experienced than Deuso to be mayor, contending his career in cybersecurity has prepared him for the mayor’s primary duty of overseeing the local police department.
Alice Sullivan, an 80-year-old neighbor and donor to Deuso, had noticed some of the nastiness on social media and said she was voting for Deuso because, unlike her opponent, she wasn’t a “bigot.”
She lamented the online attacksagainst Deuso as disappointing — but unsurprising. The candidate’s gender identity shouldn’t matter, insisted Sullivan, who has lived in Downingtown for decades.
“Other people’s lives, genders, whatever is not my business,” she said.
Josh Maxwell, a Democratic county commissioner and former Downingtown mayor who had joined Deuso to knock doors, asked if Sullivan thought others would disagree in the historically Catholic community. But the people who cared, Sullivan argued, are “not going to vote Democrat anyway.”
“There might be some,” she said. “I don’t know very many.”
Campaigning in the west end of Downingtown Erica Deuso greets Alice Sullivan on Oct. 18.
As Deuso walked door to door, her conversations focused on local and community issues. She greeted every dog she saw and spoke to their owners about their safety concerns — drivers had been racing down quiet neighborhood streets — and their concerns about the community. Deuso is proposing a program to offer hotel rooms for one night to those facing domestic violence.
She also made it clear that she would be a resource, even on issues that went beyond the mayor’s official duties. She showed one voter how she had started a youth-driven art project at a recent township festival. And pointed to a home that, just weeks prior, she’d brought a misdelivered package to on behalf of a voter.
For weeks, Raul Hurtado, Deuso’s neighbor who immigrated from Colombia in the 1990s, has been rolling down his windows when he sees Deuso, telling her he’s voting for her.
“She is from this town, my neighbor, and we need someone to help us,” Hurtado told The Inquirer.
If she’s elected, Deuso told Hurtado, her goal is to be available to all residents through office hours at Borough Hall.
“We can have a face-to-face discussion,” she said. “Not through your car window.”
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Despite the public fall from grace, the voter said he missed John Dougherty’s leadership in Philadelphia, adding that he believed Dougherty had been good for workers in the city. They are brothers, Kevin Dougherty confirmed.
Justice Kevin Dougherty (left) canvasses with his son, State Rep. Sean Dougherty (center) in Fox Chase Sunday Sept. 7, 2025, stopping at the home of a voter. The elder Dougherty is one of three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices up for retention.
But in this year’s unusually high-profile state Supreme Court retention race, the connection has, in some circles, become unavoidable. Republicans seeking to oust Kevin Dougherty and two of his colleagues, all initially elected as Democrats, have sought to tie the judge to his brother’s misdeeds. The justice, a son of South Philadelphia who previously led Philadelphia’s Family Court, has sought to distance himself, and has seen the continued support of labor unions in his retention campaign.
“Over the course of 25 years as a judge, including ten years as a Justice on the Supreme Court, Justice Dougherty has had the privilege and the benefit of meeting a multitude of Pennsylvanians including the working men and women of organized labor,” Shane Carey, Kevin Dougherty’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “Our campaign is proud to receive their support, as well as the support from almost 5,000 other individual donors.”
How Johnny Doc helped elect his brother to the Supreme Court in 2015
Kevin Dougherty didn’t choose to be related to one of the city’s most prominent power brokers, but he certainly benefited from his brother’s former union’s help, with significant support from the politically powerful Local 98 during his 2015 campaign for the state bench.
Local 98, where John Dougherty was the longtime business manager, contributed more than $620,000 during Kevin Dougherty’s 2015 campaign for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Local 98’s spokesperson at the time also served as Kevin Dougherty’s campaign manager and appears from campaign finance filings that year to have been paid by Local 98. The union also spent more than $480,000 on in-kind contributions for “professional services,” mailers, merchandise,and more.
Justice Kevin Dougherty talks with volunteers before they head out the canvass in Fox Chase Sunday Sept. 7, 2025. Dougherty is one of three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices up for retention.
Kevin Dougherty is the only justice up for retention from Southeastern Pennsylvania. The other justices, Christine Donohue and David Wecht, live in Pittsburgh. They will each appear on the November ballot with no party and no home county. Voters will simply be asked “yes” or “no” whether each individual justice should be retained for another term.
Republicans working to oust the three justices this year have tried to leverage Kevin Dougherty’s past support from his brother to encourage voters to oppose his retention.
Scott Presler, an influencer aligned with President Donald Trump who has more than 2.4 million followers and runs a political action committee aimed at registering Republican voters, posted an AI-generated image of John Dougherty behind bars, tying, without evidence, Local 98’s contributions to Kevin Dougherty’s 2015 campaign to his brother’s convictions.
“Coincidence?” Presler wrote.
Johnny Dougherty, the former IBEW business manger, and his attorney Gregory J. Pagano as they leave the U.S. District Court, Reading, Pa. on the day he was sentenced to 6 years in prison Thursday, July 11, 2024.
For months, the conservative influencer has posted on social media urging followers to vote against retaining Kevin Dougherty and his colleagues, citing the times his name was mentioned during John Dougherty’s trials, such as when prosecutors alleged the justice received free home repairs or snow removal on the union’s dime. Kevin Dougherty’s lawyer at the time of the embezzlement trial said the judge never knowingly accepted services paid for with union funds.
While door-knocking in September, Kevin Dougherty dismissed attacks against him related to his brother as “misinformation,” noting his decades-long career as a judge.
Kevin Dougherty, 63, spent more than a decade as a Common Pleas Court judge in Philadelphia before his election to the state Supreme Court. During his tenure on the state’s highest court, he has authored majority opinions and is leading a statewide initiative to improve how Pennsylvania’s judicial system interacts with people with behavioral health issues.
“I spent close to a quarter of a century being a judge,” Dougherty said on a sidewalk in Northeast Philly. “I just don’t accept people’s comments and judgment. I want to know what the motive behind those comments are. Some of these comments are just partisan … and I believe in my reputation.”
The justice should be vetted on his own merits, said John Jones, a former U.S. District Court judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania who was appointed to the bench by former President George W. Bush.
“You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your relatives,” Jones, now president of Dickinson College, added. “You have to judge the justice on his own merits. This is not a country where we favor guilt by association.”
Kevin Dougherty still has broad union support, including from Local 98
With John Dougherty no longer at the helm of Local 98, labor unions in Pennsylvania this year still overwhelmingly supported the justice for retention, contributing $665,000 to Kevin Dougherty’s campaign as of September. While trades unions contributed the most of any interest group to all three justices — for a total of $903,000 as of the latest filings — Kevin Dougherty is the largest beneficiary of that support.
Among those contributors: Local 98. The union, which has reorganized and distanced itself from John Dougherty since he was first convicted in 2021, gave $70,000 to Kevin Dougherty’s retention campaign.
“IBEW Local 98 does not support candidates based on personal relationships,” said Tom Lepera, Local 98’s political director, in a statement. “We support candidates who understand and stand up for the needs of working men and women in organized labor. Justice Dougherty, along with Justices Donohue and Wecht, have consistently demonstrated their commitment to protecting the rights and interests of middle-class workers across this commonwealth.”
Kevin Dougherty’s campaign did not respond to several questions this weekabout his brother’s role in his 2015 campaign or whether his brother’s reputation has influenced the retention campaign.
Anti-retention material featuring President Donald Trump as Uncle Sam was on display at Republican rally in Bucks County last month headlined by Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a candidate for governor. The material is from Early Vote Action, a group led by GOP influencer Scott Presler.
Union leaders insist their support for Kevin Dougherty this year has nothing to do with his brother and is a reflection of his quality work in the judiciary. Labor unions often support Democratic candidates, who are often seen as more beneficial to unions and their priorities.
“It’s about keeping good judges on the bench,” said Ryan Boyer, leader of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella organization of local trades unions once commanded by John Dougherty. This year, the building trades gave just over $33,000 to each justice.
“We don’t live on Mars where we don’t know that sometimes familial connections can be there,” Boyer said, “and they try to exploit those things.”
Nonpartisan and Democratic groups favor Dougherty’s tenure on the bench
Like his colleagues running for retention, Kevin Dougherty has earned broad support from nonpartisan and partisan groups alike.
Lauren Cristella, CEO of the Committee of Seventy, the Philadelphia-based good-government group, noted that the justice was never charged or found guilty of wrongdoing.
Justices David Wecht, Christine Donohue and Kevin Dougherty sit onstage during a fireside chat at Central High School on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025 in Philadelphia.
“The Committee of Seventy relies on the findings of law enforcement and professional oversight organizations, such as the Bar Association, when evaluating judicial candidates. This year, the Pennsylvania Bar Association has evaluated Justice Dougherty and recommended him for retention. Our focus remains on transparency, accountability, and maintaining public trust in Pennsylvania’s courts,” Cristella said in a statement.
Dougherty and his fellow justices have also gained the support of Gov. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s popular Democratic governor, who in a fundraising email to Pennsylvania Democrats on Thursday urged voters to mark “yes” on retaining Dougherty, Donohue, and Wecht.
Justice Kevin M. Dougherty listens during a Courtroom Dedication Ceremony at the Supreme Court Courtroom in Philadelphia City Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025 in Philadelphia.
“The threats to our freedoms are coming from all directions, and we need a Court that stands up for what’s right,” Shapiro said in the email. “Justices Donohue, Dougherty, and Wecht have proven that we can count on them to protect freedom, reproductive rights, and the rule of law.”
In a statement to The Inquirer, Kevin Dougherty didn’t mention his brother by name.
“With regard to my personal relationship I love my big brother. For obvious reasons, my brother is not participating in my Retention campaign,” he said.
Democrats have dominated Delaware County government since the 2019 election.
As suburban communities across the nation flipped from red to blue, Democrats took control of the county council for the first time since the Civil War — the result of long-term shifts accelerated by President Donald Trump’s first administration. The party has held all five seats on the governing board ever since, easily retaining seats in 2021 and 2023.
Two seats on the five-member board are on the ballot in November. Democrats argue tax increases were necessary to make up for decades of underinvestment by Republicans.
But Republicans insist spending is out of control. While they cannot take control of the board this year, they are asking voters to give them a voice to push back against the Democrats.
“The money tree in the backyard does not exist,” said Brian Burke, one of two Republicans running for council.
Burke, a union steamfitter, was first elected to Upper Darby’s township council in 2019 as a Democrat. He became a Republican to unsuccessfully run for mayor of the township in 2023 following years of feuds with the Democratic administration. While on the township council, Burke worked in conjunction with Republicans on the board as well as two other Democrats to challenge Democratic leadership in Upper Darby. He said this experience would aid him as he worked to hold Democratic leadership in Delaware County accountable.
Piazza worked for decades in Delaware County Court’s domestic relations department, where she ran the warrant division and served as a liaison for judges and attorneys. Running for council, Piazza has been vocal about wanting to devote opioid settlement funds toward grandparents caring for the children of those struggling with addiction.
Womack was first elected to the council in 2021 after spending 10 years on the Darby Township Board of Commissioners. Womack spent years as an advocate in the labor movement, including serving as an adviser on community and religious affairs for the national AFL-CIO.
Burke and Piazza are urging voters to elect them to “stop the spend.”
After the council raised property taxes by 23% last year, the pair of Republicans argued the taxes were a result of out-of-control spending in the county. They say there needs to be a voice on the council acting as a check on spending.
“There’s a lot that needs to be cut. There’s a lot of spending,” Piazza said.
If elected, the two Republicans would not have control over county spending, but they would have votes on the five-member board to oppose new spending and work to sway their Democratic counterparts.
What is the Democratic platform?
Womack and Phillips are largely defending the actions of the Democratic council over the last five years. Republican leadership, they argue, did not raise taxes for 12 years and allowed county infrastructure to fall into disrepair. As a result, they say, Democrats had to increase taxes to fund county services and infrastructure improvements.
No one wanted to increase taxes, Womack said, but it was unavoidable.
“Our county has really been underserved for many decades,” Womack said. “In the long run, it costs you a lot more money to repair than if you had taken care of things gradually.”
If elected, Phillips says she would like to do more public vetting of contracts and work to increase development in Delaware County so that the local tax base can be increased without more tax hikes. Womack has said he wants to work on expanding affordable housing options in the county.
Why were taxes raised? Will there be another hike?
The county council voted last year to increase property taxes by 23%, which comes out to roughly $185 annually for the owner of a home assessed at the county average. The county had used pandemic relief funds to stave off significant tax increases in prior years, but those funds were running dry and additional dollars were needed to cover employee salaries amid inflation, council members said at the time.
Piazza and Burke insist that another double-digit tax increase is on the way. Too much of the current budget, they argue, still depends on short-term federal pandemic relief funds or transfers from other county funds.
“They’re going to come out after November 4th election and basically tell the residents of Delaware County, ‘You’ve got another 20% increase,’” Burke said.
Womack, the sole member of the county council who voted against the increase, said that he anticipated another tax hike but that he could not imagine it would reach 20%.
The incumbent spearheaded a citizens budget task force that has spent the year seeking areas to cut spending.
“It’s kind of hard to really project what we’re looking at right now,” Womack said. He noted that, amid a federal government shutdown, details on state and federal aid are unclear.
However, the county is not expecting to release its preliminary budget until mid-November, after the election. Last year, the county did not release its proposed budget until Dec. 3.
Where do Republicans want to cut?
Republicans have identified three primary areas they argue represent overspending: the county health department, the prison, and outside legal assistance.
Republicans in the county have long argued it was an unnecessary expense. Though the $18 million department is currently funded entirely by state and federal grant dollars, Burke argued it will eventually cost taxpayers.
“In my eyes, that [money] could have been used somewhere else,” Burke said.
In 2020, the council voted to explore options to retake control of the county prison from the private firm that had run it. Phillips, who was controller at the time, argued the decision was in the county’s best interest and has better served inmates and staff.
But Republicans argued that the county’s costs have gone up too much and that the county opened itself up to litigation that it would not have been vulnerable to if the prison had remained privately run. The union representing prison employees often clashed with the first warden the county chose to lead the prison.
In an interview, Burke argued the county could find significant savings if it put the prison back in private hands. In 2025, the prison cost the county over $59 million. The county’s last contract with GEO, which managed the prison privately, paid the company $259 million over five years.
Phillips said the health department and public prison, while significant expenses, will save the county and its residents in the long run. Even when the prison was run privately, she said, infrastructure repairs were on the county and the private operators sought to maximize the number of inmates in the building.
“Government should take care of its people,” Phillips said.
Finally, Republicans point to the ballooning cost of legal counsel to the county. Last year, the county paid more than $4.4 million to outside legal counsel, including a firm that once employed Phillips and County Councilwoman Christine Reuther. Republicans argue this represents misuse of funds and political cronyism.
Phillips and Womack instead point to the county’s small in-house legal team and the growing number of cases brought against the county, including defending against frivolous suits filed by election deniers, as well as managing complex legal issues, such as the Prospect Medical Holdings bankruptcy filing that closed two major hospitals in the county.
Even if they won both seats, Republicans would hold the minority on the council for at least the next two years. This means they would have to persuade Democrats to come along with them on any policy changes or budget cuts.
“I would love to win the seat and get in there and get into the nitty-gritty and kind of see what goes on behind closed doors and have a voice for the residents and be there for them,” Piazza said.
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Bucks County Republicans are stoking fears about crime in Philadelphia even as violent crime in the city steadily drops from its high during the pandemic.
Republicans in the purple collar county hope the message will boost the GOP incumbents, District Attorney Jen Schorn and Sheriff Fred Harran, as they face off this fall against their respective Democratic challengers, Joe Khan and Danny Ceisler.
“We’re letting anarchy take over our country in certain places, and that’s not something we want in Bucks,” said Pat Poprik, the chair of the Bucks County Republican Party.
“Democrats are far more enthusiastic about voting precisely because they see what’s happening on the national level. They are really infuriated by what Donald Trump is doing,” State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, who chairs the Bucks County Democratic Party, said. “They’re going to make their displeasure heard by coming to the polls.”
The local races in the key county, which Trump narrowly won last year,will be a temperature check on how swing voters are responding to Trump’s second term and will gauge their enthusiasm ahead of the 2026 midterms, when Shapiro stands for reelection.
As the Nov. 4 election approaches, early signs indicate Democrats’ message might be working — polling conducted by a Democratic firm in September found their candidates ahead, and three weeks before Election Day, Democrats had requested more than twice as many mail ballots as Republicans.
“I think the Republican Party has the same problem it always does. … They turn out when Trump’s on the ticket, but when he’s not, there’s less enthusiasm,” said Jim Worthington, who has run pro-Trump organizations in Bucks County. “Truth be told, the Democrats do a hell of a job just turning out their voters.”
State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a Republican running for Pa. governor, poses with Bucks County elected officers following her campaign rally Sat the Newtown Sports & Events Center. From left: Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran; Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn; Garrity; and Pamela Van Blunk, Bucks County Controller.
GOP warns of ‘dangerous’ policies
Republican messaging in the two races focuses on the idea that Bucks County is safe, but its neighbors are not.
GOP ads, which have run over the course of four months, suggest that Khan and Ceisler would enact “dangerous” policies in Bucks County such as “releasing criminals without bail” and “giving sanctuary to violent gang members.”
They frame Harran and Schorn in stark contrast to their opponents as lifelong Bucks County law enforcement officers with histories of holding criminals accountable.
“I think it resonates beyond the Republican base,” said Guy Ciarrocchi, a Republican analyst, who contended frequent news coverage of Krasner makes the message more viable.
Khan, a former assistant Philly district attorney who unsuccessfully ran against Krasner in the 2017 primary, has noted that he campaigned “very, very vigorously” against Krasner and challenged his ideas on how to serve the city.
“I accept the reality that I didn’t win that election,” said Khan, whose platform in 2017 included a proposal to stop prosecuting most low-level drug offenses. “Unlike my opponent, who seems to basically enjoy the sport of scoring political points by sparring with the DA of Philadelphia.”
Schorn, however, is adamant that politics has never played a role in her prosecutorial decisions. Her mission, she said, is “simply to get justice.”
A lifelong Bucks County resident who has been a prosecutor in the county since 1999, Schorn handled some of the county’s most high-profile cases and spearheaded the formation of a task force for internet crimes against children.
Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn speaks at a Republican rally at the Newtown Sports & Events Center in September.
“This has been my life’s mission, prosecuting cases here in Bucks County, the county where I was raised,” she said. “I didn’t do it for any notoriety. I didn’t do it for self-promotion. I did it because it’s what I went to law school to do.”
Harran spent decades as Bensalem’s public safety director before first running for sheriff in 2021. He is seeking reelection amid controversy caused by his decision to partner his agency with ICE, a move that a Bucks County judge upheld last week after a legal challenge.
“Being Bucks County Sheriff isn’t a position you can learn on the job. For 39 years, I’ve woken up every day focused on keeping our communities safe,” Harran said in an email to The Inquirer in which he criticized Ceisler as lacking experience.
Although Ceisler has never worked directly in law enforcement, he argues the sheriff’s job is one of leadership in public safety. That’s something he says he’s well versed in as a senior public safety official in Shapiro’s administration who previously served on the Pentagon’s COVID-19 crisis management team.
Harran, who described his opponent as a “political strategist,” criticized “politicians” for bringing “half-baked ideas like ‘no-cash bail’” into law enforcement. The concept, which is repeatedly derided in the GOP ads, sets up a system by which defendants are either released free of charge or held without the opportunity for bail based on their risk to the community and likelihood of returning to court.
Khan and Ceisler each voiced support for the concept in prior runs for Philadelphia district attorney and Bucks County district attorney, respectively.
Both say they still support cashless bail. Neither, however, would have the authority to implement the policy if elected, though Khan as district attorney could establish policies preventing county prosecutors from seeking cash bail in certain cases.
Joe Khan, a Democratic candidate running for Bucks County DA, walks from his polling place in Doylestown, Pa. in April 2024 when he was running for attorney general.
“When a defendant is arrested and they come into court, every prosecutor answers this question: Should this person be detained or not?” Khan said. “If the answer is yes, then your position in court is that this person shouldn’t be let out, and it doesn’t matter how much money they have. And if the answer is no, then you need to figure out what conditions you need to make sure they come to court.”
Democrats claim to ‘keep politics out’
Even as Democrats view voter anger at Trump as a key piece of their path to victory, they are working to present themselves as apolitical.
Democraticads attack Schorn for not investigating a pipeline leak in Upper Makefield and Harran as caring about nothing but himself. Positive ads highlight Ceisler’s military background and Khan’s career as a federal prosecutor.
Khan and Ceisler, the Democratic Party’s ads argue, will “stop child predators, stand up to corruption, and they’ll keep politics out of public safety.”
The jet fuelcase was turned over to the environmental crimes unit in Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday’s office. And prosecutorial rules bar Schorn from discussing the alleged abuse.
“During the last, I don’t know, 13 years when [Khan] has been pursuing politics, I’ve been a public servant,” Schorn said.“For someone accusing me of putting politics first, he seems to be using politics to further his own agenda.”
At a September rally in Newtown for Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a Republican running for governor, Harran cracked jokes about former President Joe Biden’s age as he climbed onto the stage and falsely told voters that they will “lose [their] right to vote” if they don’t vote out three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices standing for retention.
“I’m a cop who ran to keep being a cop. This isn’t about politics for me — it’s about doing everything I can to keep my community safe,” Harran said.
Harran’s opponent, Ceisler, paints a different picture as he draws a direct line between the sheriff and the president.
Danny Ceisler, a Democrat, is running for Bucks County sheriff.
Trump, Ceisler said, has inserted politics into public safety in his second term, and he contended that Harran has done the same.
“[Harran] used his bully pulpit to help get the president elected, so to that extent he is linked to the president for better or worse,” Ceisler said in an interview.
Ceisler has pledged to take politics out of the office and end the department’s partnership with ICE if elected.
At an event in Warminster last month, voters were quick to ask Ceisler which party he was running with. Ceisler asked them to hear his pitch about how he would run the office first.
“Don’t hold it against me,” he quipped as he ultimately admitted to one voter he’s a Democrat.
Staff writer Fallon Roth contributed to this article.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Lower Merion Township’s effort to limit where guns are sold violates state law, Commonwealth Court ruled Thursday.
In a case that holds major implications for the power of local governments across Pennsylvania, the court threw out the township’s zoning ordinance that sought to block holders of federal firearms licenses from operating in walkable downtown areas and residential neighborhoods.
The question at the heart of the case was whether the ordinance regulated land-use decisions, the bread and butter of local government, or the sale of firearms, which only the state can do.
A majority opinion, signed by five judges, said the township’s ordinance violated state law that prohibits local governments from regulating guns because its requirements went beyond geographic limits.
“The Township’s ordinance here is clearly intended to regulate the sale of firearms, rather than to regulate zoning,” wrote Judge Matthew Wolf in the opinion. “It is a gun regulation, not a zoning regulation.”
In a statement, Todd Sinai, the Democratic president of the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners, said the township was considering its legal and legislative options.
“We, of course, are disappointed in the Commonwealth Court’s decision today. It is a fundamental and important right of municipalities to be able to zone the location of uses to best serve their residents and property owners,” Sinai said.
Frustrated with the lack of gun-control measures out of Harrisburg, advocates and officials have sought to use local ordinances to limit gun sales and where guns can be carried, and to ban certain firearms. Philadelphia has fought for years for the ability to enact gun laws. But ordinances passed by Philly and other cities, including Pittsburgh, have largely been struck down by courts.
One strategy that has had limited success is the use of zoning ordinances to limit the locations of firearms-related activities, such as shooting ranges or gun stores. The Lower Merion case was seen by some as a test on how far zoning can go to bypass state preemption.
“The Commonwealth Court has reaffirmed once again that local forms of government cannot regulate firearms and ammunition in any manner,” said Joshua Prince, an attorney with Civil Rights Defense Firm who filed the lawsuit.
Lower Merion can appeal the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which would have to agree to hear the case, but the ruling delivered a blow to gun-control advocates who had hoped Lower Merion’s ordinance could be replicated elsewhere in the state.
“The decision to treat firearm operations as different within zoning than any other business is unusual and concerning,” said Adam Garber, the executive director of CeaseFire PA.
The ruling, he said, creates a road map for how municipalities can zone firearm stores but also puts the impetus on the state to address gun regulations, something lawmakers in Harrisburg have refused to do.
The township approved the zoning rules for firearms dealers in 2023 after the opening of Shot Tec, a gun training facility and seller in Bala Cynwyd, sparked community outrage. The zoning rules established a set of criteria for sellers to operate under and said they could open only in strip malls and industrial-use areas.
The township argued that, while local governments are not allowed to regulate firearms, they have broad power over zoning and land use.
Grant Schmidt, the owner of the Bala Cynwyd shop, sued after the zoning ordinance impeded his ability to open a second location in his home.
He responded to the news of the ruling Thursday with a gif of Ric Flair cheering. His business, which offers training and education on firearms in addition to buying, selling, and storing them, has had four locations in five years. He said he hoped he could now focus on expanding his business rather than fighting local policies.
“Now I’m looking to just grow and be normal and invest in my staff more,” Schmidt said.
The litigation focuses on the requirements Schmidt had to adhere to for his most recent Rock Hill Road location, which is within one of the four districts that were zoned for businesses that require a federal gun license. The ordinance went beyond restricting place and imposed 12 additional requirements, such as installing smash-resistant windows, an alarm system, and internal video surveillance.
Montgomery County Court found that all but three requirements were preempted by state law. Following Schmidt’s appeal, Commonwealth Court struck down the remaining requirements and the place restrictions.
Lower Merion argued that other businesses, such as medical marijuana dispensaries, animal hospitals, and funeral homes, are subject to compatible conditions to operate. These types of requirements are “traditional local land use control not specific to firearms,” the township argued, according to the majority opinion.
To make its case, Lower Merion cited a previous, non-precedential decision by Commonwealth Court that allowed Philadelphia to limit gun shops to specific zoning districts.
The difference between the cases, Wolf wrote, is that Philadelphia limited the location of the gun shops but said nothing about how they need to operate. Lower Merion went a step further to restrict how gun shop owners “conduct their business.”
Two judges, Renee Cohen Jubelirer and Lori Dumas, disagreed with the majority’s analysis, saying the decision “strips the Township of its traditional power over land use and zoning.”
“Contrary to the Majority’s conclusion, none of the provisions of the ordinance at issue here regulate the ownership, transportation, or transfer of firearms, ammunition, or ammunition components,” Jubelirer wrote in the dissent.
Correction: An original version of this story incorrectly identified the gif sent by Schmidt. It featured Ric Flair.
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HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity stepped in on Wednesday to offer counties and early education programs $500 million in low-interest loans to hold them over until a final state budget deal is complete, sidestepping the General Assembly and Gov. Josh Shapiro as they near the start of a third month at an impasse.
Garrity, a Republican who last month announced her bid to challenge Shapiro in next year’s gubernatorial election, announced the unprecedented move to allow the state Treasury to offer the loans to county human service departmentsfor the many social services they provide, as well as for early education Head Start programs, at a 4.5% interest rate.
Counties, schools, and social service providers have pleaded for months with the legislature to finalize a budget so they can begin receiving their expected state payments, which have been on hold since the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1. Some counties have had to secure private loans to hold them over until state payments begin, while others — including those around the Philadelphia region — have relied on their reserves. Other counties have frozen hiring and spending as they await a resolution to the budget stalemate.
The move would allow counties to access millions of dollars for early education programs serving 35,000 children across the state, as well as for county social services — all of which have been operating for months without their state appropriation, with no end to the budget impasse in sight.
Garrity’s decision to act unilaterally without the action of the General Assembly allows her to capitalize politically on the ongoing budget crisis over Shapiro, challenging his image as a moderate Democratic governor of a politically “purple” state willing to work across the aisle in a divided legislature. That brand, which he has built nationally as he is rumored to have interest in running for president in 2028, has been tested as he has so far been unable to secure a budget deal or a recurring funding stream for the state’s beleaguered mass transit agencies, including SEPTA.
Shapiro, for his part, has described his role in budget negotiations as being a go-between for Senate Republicans and House Democrats, who control their respective chambers, and has said that the two caucuses remain “diametrically opposed” on some issues.
A spokesperson for Shapiro said in a statement Wednesday that the real solution to the budget impasse is for Senate Republicans, whose leaders endorsed Garrity last week, to return to work in Harrisburg to finalize a budget deal with House Democrats. A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) echoed the sentiment, arguing that Senate Republicans “refuse to negotiate on a realistic budget agreement.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro visits SEPTA headquarters Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025 to discuss funding for the transit agency and to pressure Senate Republicans as planned service cuts are pending because of a budget shortfall. To his right, from left, are state Democratic legislators Sen. Anthony H. Williams; Sen. Nikil Saval; Rep. Ed Neilson; and Rep. Jordan Harris.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana), the Senate’s top negotiator, who has met for months in closed-door budget talks with Bradford and Shapiro, said in a statement that it was Democrats who caused the prolonged impasse while demanding they include mass transit funding in the state budget. After mounting pressure as SEPTA enacted major service cuts, Shapiro ultimately sought to fund the agency on his own, and the issue will need to be revisited in two years.
Garrity, who kicked off her “Help Is on the Way” introductory campaign tour around the state earlier this week, said Wednesday her decision to intervene in the state budget stalemate was not political, despite her burgeoning run against Shapiro. Rather, she said that she had been thinking about a way to do so for months, including ahead of her announcement of her run for governor, and that most Pennsylvanians don’t even realize the state budget is late. She argued that if she wanted to be political, she would not intervene and would “keep the pressure” on Shapiro over the late state budget.
“I’m standing up here as Pennsylvania’s state treasurer, not as a candidate for governor,” Garrity said from a podium in the Harrisburg building that houses the state Treasury. “I think I have a responsibility to serve Pennsylvanians, that if I have something that I can do to provide some relief, then I should do it.”
However, that didn’t stop Garrity from inviting Montgomery County Commissioner Tom DiBello — the lone Republican on the board where Shapiro once served — to the podium at the news conference to deliver some direct criticisms of Shapiro and to praise Garrity’s intervention as a “lifeline” for counties, alongside two other GOP county commissioners from south-central Pennsylvania. While Montgomery County remains one of the wealthiest counties in the state, the late budget has required Pennsylvania’s third-most-populous county to spend down its reserves, money that it usually relies upon to continue earning interest as part of its annual revenue, DiBello said.
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy L. Garrity gives her acceptance speech after receiving the PA GOP’s endorsement for her campaign for governor during the Republican Party of Pennsylvania’s 2025 Fall Meeting at the Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center in State College on Sept. 20.
“It starts at the top. The governor is responsible,” DiBello said. “He’s got to pull it together. It’s his signature at the end of the day.”
In response to Garrity’s announcement Wednesday, Montgomery County Commissioners Neil Makhija and Jamila Winder, both Democrats, said in a statement that the county needs a final state budget instead of a short-term loan program, urging Senate Republicans to “do their job.”
“A short-term loan at 4.5% interest is the state profiting from a problem of their own making, at the expense of the taxpayers,” the two commissioners added.
DiBello said he did not believe his invitation to Wednesday’s event had political motivations, adding: “I didn’t even think of that.” He also noted that he has come to Harrisburg to advocate on behalf of counties multiple times before.
Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland), who has been one of Shapiro’s biggest critics since his first budget in 2023 and was quick to support Garrity’s candidacy, prodded at Shapiro’s pledge to “get stuff done” while praising Garrity’s leadership.
“Today, Treasurer Stacy Garrity made a bold move that shows what ‘get stuff done’ actually looks like,” Ward said in a statement. “Treasurer Garrity’s leadership is on display as her solution-driven option is exactly what we need, but has been glaringly missing from the present administration.”
Garrity said at the news conference Wednesday that she offered the loan program specifically to Head Start programs and county governments’ human service departments because both had asked her to help them get through the budget impasse. The state budget was due by July 1, and Pennsylvania is the only state besides Michigan that has not yet passed its budget. She said she is willing to offer similar loans to schools or other state-subsidized or funded programs as requested.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly can forgive the interest accrued by counties taking out loans during the budget impasse, Garrity said, adding that shewould support legislation that does so.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Crozer Health’s shutteredTaylor Hospital in Ridley Park will be soldto a group of local healthcare executives for $1 million, according to an agreement filed Friday in bankruptcy court proceedings for its owner, California-based Prospect Medical Holdings.
The buyer is a partnership led by Delaware County business owner Todd Strine. The group’s goal is to refill the empty property with medical services, Strine said.
“The ideal thing that could happen is we reopen an emergency room, because that’s what Delaware County needs,” said Strine, who is the majority owner of medical transport company Keystone Quality Transport.
Prospect closed Taylor in late April after the failure ofa state-led effort to find a new operator that would return the Crozer health system to nonprofit ownership. Shortly thereafter, Crozer-Chester Medical Center also closed.
Crozer was Delaware County’s largest healthcare system and a provider of critical safety-net services.For-profitProspect had previouslyclosed Springfield Hospital and Delaware County Memorial Hospital in 2022.
“It’s a fact that Delaware County is less safe today than it was when these hospitals were operating,” Strine said.
He said it seems unlikely that a full-blown hospital would return to Taylor.
Ridley Park Council president Dane Collins said he’s hopeful that an emergency department and doctors services will return to the site. “It’s no secret. The area’s in desperate need of it,” he said.
As part of the agreement, Delaware County, Ridley Park Borough, and the Ridley School District agreed to reduce the taxable value of the property from its assessed value of $60 million to a fair market value of $1 million for the next two years.
The reduced value slashes the amount of property taxes that can be earned on the property for the next two years. However, beginning in 2027, the taxing authorities would be permitted to appeal the value of the building.
The decision to reduce the building’s value so dramatically in tax rolls was opposed by some members of Ridley School District’s board of education, which only narrowly approved the measure on a 5 to 4 vote last week.
Prospect hasn’t paid property taxes on the property since 2022, according to public records.
Delaware County councilmember Christine Reuther called the new value a “tough pill to swallow” in an interview. The property was worth more than the “fire sale price” it had gone for, she said.
The building would be worth less than many homes on the county’s tax rolls, Reuther noted, at a time when property values and home costs are increasing.
She called the resolution yet another example of the negative fallout from Prospect’s abandonment of healthcare resources in the community.
“There’s literally nothing we can do that isn’t going to resolve in a worse result, and that’s wrong,” Reuther said.
Strine acknowledged that the price seems cheap, but noted the building is empty, and it’s a special-use building, making it harder to find tenants. “There’s a ton of carrying costs and a lot of uncertainty about how long it’s going to take to fill up,” he said.
The investment needed to bring the building back to life is going to be many times the price, Stine said.
“It’s positive movement to have an experienced local businessperson purchase the property instead of allowing the property to become abandoned,” said Frances Sheehan, president of the Foundation for Delaware County, whose mission is promoting health and welfare in the county.
Taylor is the second shuttered Crozer hospital to be sold in less than a month. Upper Darby School District bought the former Delaware County Memorial Hospital for $600,000 on Aug. 14. It plans to use the property for expansion of its neighboring high school.
In both cases, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan said Prospect could abandon the properties, which means that local authorities would have had to put the real estate up for a tax sale.
Prospect had told the judge that the top offers it had received were $1.25 million for Delaware County Memorial, which closed in 2022, and $575,000 for Taylor.
Given the risk of abandonment by Prospect, county and local authorities riskeda totalloss to tax rolls ifProspect abandoned the property entirely.
Robert Strauss, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies property tax, noted that the buyers may have backed out of a deal if they couldn’t obtain the reductions in property taxes.
“It’s hard to envision anything easy happening in the short run that would bring it back onto the tax rolls and be profitable,” he said. “The reduction in revenues seems to me to be inevitable in the next couple of years, regardless.”
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