Last year, as the General Assembly failed for months to fulfill one of its primary responsibilities — adopting a budget — Lehigh County faced the possibility it would have to raid its $25 million stabilization fund to maintain essential services in the absence of state reimbursements.
It would have been a short-term fix — $25 million doesn’t last as long as you’d like when you’re funding essential programs for children and seniors, mental health treatment, a courthouse and corrections department and a county home — so the next step would have been massive borrowing.
It didn’t come to that, but it was a stark reminder that the county — with every dollar spoken for and only the thinnest of cushions to protect us — is always one budget stalemate or one federal slash-and-burn campaign away from financial precarity.
In my State of the County address, I acknowledged a hard truth: we must increase revenues, not only to pay for programs already offered but for others that, in the long term, will benefit everyone, especially our most vulnerable citizens. I would like to expand on that idea here and flesh out some of my proposals, one pertaining to taxes and the other to housing.
The county has gone six years without a tax increase. That can be viewed as a credit to careful financial stewardship, yes, but also as shortsightedness, a deferment of the inevitable in an age of rising costs and increasing demand for services.
Rather than impose a higher property tax burden on seniors and others on fixed incomes, I have proposed exploring a 1% local option sales tax, similar to a model in Allegheny County.
Proceeds would be tied to property tax relief, while supporting investments in housing, public transportation, mental health services and programs to fight homelessness. We are working with the Pennsylvania Economy League to determine how much revenue the sales tax could realize.
I also proposed raising revenue by creating a Tourism Improvement District, or TID, a public-private partnership aimed at increasing overnight visitor stays and bringing greater foot traffic to our businesses. On an annual basis, hotels in the district would pay an assessment fee to fund dedicated marketing, promotions and initiatives to increase tourism and overnight stays.
The county, and the Lehigh Valley as a whole, is a rich tourist draw. A TID could raise some $7.5 million annually and result in up to $23 million in local spending, adding between 40-55,000 new hotel stays.
These are only two ideas for raising the kind of money we need to give our citizens what they deserve.
We will never stop seeking additional sources of revenue to carry forward with our ambitious vision, especially in the area of housing availability and affordability, which is my administration’s top priority.
In addition to calling for changes in zoning and permitting laws to allow a greater variety of housing types and to ease the housing process for buyers and builders, I have proposed buying existing housing stock — primarily older apartment buildings — to turn into affordable housing.
New construction takes time and expense, but empowering our housing authorities to buy existing stock instantly creates new and affordable inventory. Through this model, the Philadelphia Housing Authority has acquired 1,500 units in 18 months. Building new would have taken several years. The savings speak for themselves: a new unit costs PHA $550,000; existing ones can be acquired for between $130,000 to $260,000.
This strategy also keeps these buildings out of the hands of private equity firms and large real estate trusts — predatory entities that acquire properties and charge excessive rent.
Beyond housing, the county is looking to play a more structured and formal role in making sure that all 25 of its municipalities are given equal time and attention in terms of economic development. That process began with the resurrection of the Redevelopment Authority. I have proposed naming a full-time executive director for the authority to develop a pipeline of redevelopment projects akin to the Catasauqua Iron Works and Lehigh Valley Dairy projects.
These are only a few of the proposals outlined in my address. In the coming weeks and months, we will keep the public informed on their progress; we hope to win the full support of commissioners and stakeholders.
The county, I maintain, can play a far larger role in the life of our communities than it traditionally has. Some believe we should “stay in our lane,” serving only as a conduit for existing services.
We will, of course, always provide those services. Why, though, should we not do more? If we can’t count on state and federal leadership in these tumultuous times, we surely can count on ourselves.
This is a contributed opinion column. Josh Siegel is the Lehigh County executive. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com/opinions.