HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering whether to impose a $100-per-resident tax on large municipalities that do not have their own police forces and instead rely entirely on state troopers.

A state House bill would impose the fee only on municipalities with at least 10,000 people. Under current census figures, it would produce more than $31 million annually from 21 townships in 12 counties.

But at a hearing in Harrisburg on Thursday, opponents warned it could be financially devastating and could push townships that do not want their own police forces to establish them anyway.

"This approach looks to me like a state mandate, and it looks like an unfunded mandate," said Rep. Will Gabig, R-Cumberland.

The issue has been kicked around the state Capitol for more than a decade, and was pushed by then-Gov. Tom Ridge in the 1990s. The latest proposal is sponsored by Rep. John Pallone, D-Westmoreland.

Pallone said local and state police resources are stretched to their limits and that his bill would be fairer and result in more police on duty.

"It's not necessarily the cost factor to focus on, it's the law enforcement issues," he said.

Larry Garner, manager of White Township in Indiana County, said it would cost his municipality nearly $1.5 million to comply — a 45 percent increase in the budget.

And Les Houck, an official with the state township supervisors' association, argued that township residents pay the same state taxes as everyone else, and those payments underwrite state police coverage.