Skippack Township in Montgomery County and West Bradford in Chester County have found themselves at the heart of the debate on who should be footing the bill for Governor Wolf’s proposed state police budget increases, writes Colin Deppen for PennLive.

The proposed fee on residents of municipalities using only state troopers focuses on the nearly half of Pennsylvania’s 2,500 municipalities that rely on the troopers rather than establishing their own local police force, a service that costs Pennsylvania tax payers $600 million annually.

Proponents of the initiative note that a number of these communities have a median income well above the state’s average of around $55,000 so they can afford their own police forces.

Opponents say there are drawbacks from relying solely on state police, such as long response times.

Representative Mike Sturla said that 80 percent of the state’s population is paying for a free ride for the other 20 percent.

“And we’re not just paying for somebody’s free ride who can’t afford it but paying for somebody who is driving a Maserati,” he said, citing Skippack Township, with its median household income of $107,000 a year, and West Bradford, which has an annual median income of $104,500, as examples.

Read more about the contested issue at PennLive by clicking here.