Tim Keister moved from Baltimore County to York County, Pa., two years ago, in part because he heard that taxes and housing costs were lower there. But last month he went to his first tax protest meeting in his new home state, and didn't like what he heard: Local taxes are on the rise.
Mr. Keister is one of the many Marylanders who have streamed into southern Pennsylvania in the past five years looking for more affordable housing, a quieter lifestyle and a lower tax burden.
No firm figures are available on exactly how many Marylanders have made the move to the small towns and country settings of York County and its neighboring Adams County.
But local planners and Realtors estimate that at least 60 percent of the people buying new homes in those counties in the last five years have come from Maryland.
Ironically, as Marylanders leave for the greener pastures and lower taxes of Pennsylvania, they create precisely the kinds of problems they are trying to escape.
On the north edge of Shrewsbury Borough is the sprawling 5-year-old Woodlyn Springs housing development. Split-level homes, some still under construction, dot the slopes of a shallow valley. The New Freedom sewage treatment plant is under orders from the state to expand to meet the demands new housing is creating.
The increase in population in the Southern School District of York County has forced the district to build additions on its high
school and an elementary school. And, because of the population boom, local officials say, Penn Township and Hanover are considering building a bypass around the Hanover area to ease traffic congestion.
The greater demands for service created by migrating Marylanders have also pushed up local taxes to the point that residents of southern York County now pay only slightly less in taxes, all told, than they would in Baltimore County.
This year, Penn Township saw its first local property tax increase since 1986. The school tax rate in South Western School District, which includes Penn Township, jumped nearly 40 percent over the last two years.
In the Southern School District, where superintendent Dr. Richard Hupper says "there's no question the newcomers from Maryland greatly added to our school population," the school budget has skyrocketed 35 percent in the past two years. And the new five-year contract calls for a 38.5 percent increase in teachers' salaries.
Residents of Southern York County, many of whom are ex-Marylanders, are so angry that last January they formed an anti-tax group called STOP, Southern Taxpayers of Pennsylvania. Since school districts in Pennsylvania have their own taxing powers, the new labor contract alone will translate into a whopping property tax increase over five years of $5.20 for each $1,000 of assessed value.
And Tim Keister is seriously thinking about joining.
Mr. Keister, 23, and his wife Katherine, 22, found their piece of the "Pennsylvania Dream" in September 1990 -- in a housing development in Springfield Township. Their 14-year-old split-level, three-bedroom house cost slightly less than $100,000. is just minutes away from I-83, and from there a 45-minute drive to Baltimore.
Mr. Keister is an electrician on construction projects in the Baltimore area; Mrs. Keister is a legal secretary for a Baltimore law firm.
"We looked for a detached house in Baltimore County, but the only thing we could find in that same price range was a town house," Mr. Keister said.
In 1990, the average cost of a house in south central York County, where the Keisters live, was $113,000, according to a York County Comprehensive Plan. A comparable house in southwestern York County, near Hanover, sold for just $85,900.
E. H. Paddock, a Realtor who sells homes in both Pennsylvania and Maryland, said houses comparable to the ones available in the southern Pennsylvania counties sell for $20,000 to $35,000 more in Baltimore County.
Judy Gregory and her husband, Gary, were residents of CarrolCounty. Four years ago they decided that they wanted a better house. They wanted a rancher, they said, and a two-car garage. But "the cheapest house we could find in Carroll County cost about $150,000," said Mrs. Gregory. "We found exactly what we wanted in a development in Penn Township, south of Hanover, for $95,000."
After moving to York County for the housing, both the Gregorys and the Keisters found the Pennsylvania lifestyle more appealing as well. Mrs. Keister described the pace as "calmer and quieter." And Mrs. Gregory said her neighbors "are a lot more friendly and helpful."
Another advantage of living in southern Pennsylvania is less crime, ex-Marylanders say.
"When we lived in Baltimore County, we heard police sirens screaming past our apartment all the time," said Mr. Keister. "Up here, you don't notice crime much at all."
Joseph H. Maddox, police chief of Penn Township, said no homicides were reported in the township last year, and only three armed robberies. Likewise, there have been no serious felonies reported in either New Freedom and Shrewsbury boroughs this year. Last year, there was just one -- an armed robbery.
In Baltimore County, by comparison, crime rose 8.9 percent from 1990 to 1991.
Shrewsbury Borough Police Chief Frank Lehman, however, said that while newcomers from Maryland may view the crime rate as much lower than what they're used to, "one of the first demands from people who move up here from Maryland is more police protection."
And that costs money.
Chief Maddox said that his police force has increased from 11 in 1985 to 17 now, in response to the population increase. And police forces from Shrewsbury and New Freedom boroughs were combined in January as a result of the building boom and population increase, "to make our law enforcement more efficient," Chief Lehman said.
The migration of Marylanders into York County began more than 25 years ago with the completion of I-83 from the Baltimore beltway into southern Pennsylvania. "The movement became much more pronounced in the mid-1980s with the housing boom that went on here," said Reed J. "Jack" Dunn Jr., York County planning director.
But in the last five years, the New Freedom-Shrewsbury area and the Hanover region have felt the brunt of new housing and population growth, Mr. Dunn said.
A recent traffic survey by York County planning officials found anaverage of 1,600 cars every morning getting onto the I-83 southbound exit near New Freedom and Shrewsbury, heading toward Baltimore.
If car-pooling is taken into account, that could mean as many as 3,200 Pennsylvanians from that area going to work in Maryland every morning, Mr. Dunn said -- a number which, coincidentally, nearly equates to the 3,701 population increase in the south central part of York County in the past decade.
The boom in the Hanover area can be attributed to the completion of the Northwest Expressway from the beltway to Reisterstown in 1986, said R. Jeffrey Garvick, manager of Penn Township. It put people "only 40 minutes from the subway in Owings Mills." Mr. Garvick noted that over 90 percent of new housing starts in the past four years in Penn Township were to accommodate newcomers from Maryland.
Mrs. Keister travels two hours each day to and from work without complaint. And Mrs. Gregory, until recently a deputy sheriff in Baltimore County, said when she drove from Hanover, she often beat co-workers coming from Dundalk to the Towson Courthouse.
The lower-cost housing and the quality of life make the trip worthwhile, both women said. But the appeal of lower taxes is fading.
On average, Marylanders now pay $2,500 a year in taxes -- compared with an average of $1,900 a year in Pennsylvania, according to information from the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in Washington.
"Even though taxes are low compared to what they are used to paying, Marylanders are usually the first to demand that we halt growth and keep taxes down," said Mr. Garvick.
Despite the rising taxes, increased traffic congestion and the prospect that the migration of Marylanders into Pennsylvania will not slow any time soon, the Keisters and others said they still do not regret their decision. "We love it up here," Mrs. Keister added. "I don't think we will ever return to Maryland to live."