Mike Fitzpatick raised property taxes seven times and gave himself a $20,000 raise.

As County Commissioner, Mike Fitzpatrick raised property taxes seven times; gave himself $20,000 in pay raises.

(Bristol, PA) -- On Thursday, Patrick Murphy rolled out his campaign's third TV ad highlighting Mike Fitzpatrick's record of raising property taxes seven times for Bucks County residents while doubling the county's level of debt. Fitzpatrick raised property taxes in 1997, 1998, 2001, and 2002, but it wasn't enough.

He trolled the halls of Harrisburg late at night in 2002 to lobby state lawmakers to allow him to impose additional property tax increases. He succeeded, and raised Bucks County property taxes another three times, in 2003, 2004, and 2005. In fact, one of Fitzpatrick's last votes as a Commissioner was to leave Bucks County residents with a 10% property tax increase as he headed down to Washington.

Despite increasing taxes for middle-class families, Commissioner Fitzpatrick also gave himself $20,000 in pay raise -- that's over 40%. To make matters worse, his Commissioner raise was on top of the $85,000-a-year Fitzpatrick made working a separate job at a law firm.

"Mike Fitzpatrick raised property taxes in Bucks County 7 times, yet he still felt his performance as County Commissioner entitled him to a $20,000 pay raise. No matter which office he's held, Mike Fitzpatrick has always looked out for himself -- not you," said Sara Schaumburg, Murphy's Communications Director.

Today, Mike Fitzpatrick talks incessantly about the need to return to the failed Bush policy of providing massive tax breaks for the wealthy. He was willing to hold middle-class tax cuts hostage in order to provide $100,000 tax breaks for the Paris Hiltons of the world.

Summing up Fitzpatrick's time in office, the ad closes with: "Fitzpatrick took care of himself, not you."

Apparently, some things never change.

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News & Politics

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• Mike Fitzpatrick
• property taxes
• taxes
• raise
• Patrick Murphy
• Bucks County
• 8th district
• campaign
• election
• PA08
• County Commissioner
• TV Ad
• debt