Published March 11. 2026 11:20AM<\/p>\n
Siegel delivers first address<\/p>\n
Just two days after President Donald Trump delivered his own State of the Union, Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel presented his 2026 State of Lehigh County Address at the PNC Club Level at Coca-Cola Park, 1050 IronPigs Way, Allentown.<\/p>\n
The Feb. 26 program featured networking and attendance by many business, community and government leaders, including state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-16th; state Sen. Nick Miller, D-14th; state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-132nd; former Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong; and several of the Lehigh County commissioners.<\/p>\n
Siegel kicked off his address stating the path forward \u201crequires honesty and transparency.\u201d He spoke of the ability to make change at the local level and the need to demonstrate consensus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must meet this moment with action and urgency,\u201d Siegel said.<\/p>\n
Detailing his mission, he first started with addressing the financials and expressing budgets to be moral documents. Siegel highlighted the county\u2019s current track puts them at risk to have to borrow, further emphasizing \u201cwe have done more with less for too long.\u201d Not wanting to balance budgets any longer with cutting services, Siegel pledged to fight for investment in the county\u2019s services.<\/p>\n
He also referred to an effort already underway that studies Allegheny County\u2019s success in diversifying to reduce property taxes and successfully invest in cultural and other local assets instead to generate revenue.<\/p>\n
Another one of Siegel\u2019s missions will be to address the housing affordability crisis. He detailed the cost and time savings of buying existing inventory of multifamily complexes as opposed to building new housing structures.<\/p>\n
Siegel received resounding support from the event\u2019s audience when it came to his plan to declare homelessness a disaster, an emergency, via an executive order. He reported the Community Corrections Center has sat vacant since the COVID-19 pandemic and could functionally end homelessness with its 400 beds. He hopes to work with the county board of commissioners to open a role for a strategic homeless coordinator.<\/p>\n
Throughout the address, Siegel emphasized the \u201cOne Lehigh\u201d mindset, stating \u201call 25 municipalities deserve attention\u201d and every community matters. To this very point, Siegel proposed making family vacations this year a staycation rather than jetting off to foreign lands and tropical paradises. He has partnered with Discover Lehigh Valley to launch a staycation campaign and illuminated that staying and shopping local reinvests dollars back into the local community.<\/p>\n
Advocating for paid family medical leave, Siegel explained he aims to institute eight weeks of paid family leave for county employees. This initiative creates a social safety net where workers are valued and don\u2019t have to choose between caring for loved ones versus paying rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cLehigh County will not sit idle,\u201d Siegel declared.<\/p>\n
In the face of changing times and a challenging federal climate, the new Lehigh County executive has pledged to make sure people can keep their health care. Working on the task force with county commissioners Chair Geoff Brace and other community advocates, he said he will make sure Lehigh County residents are connected to the resources they need.<\/p>\n
\u201cModernizing communications is a necessity,\u201d he said, adding one of the first areas of focus will reportedly be updating the county website.<\/p>\n
Siegel outlined the county\u2019s move toward regionalization for emergency services and is preparing policies and procedures to maintain the integrity of polling places.<\/p>\n
As Siegel neared the end of the address, he said, \u201cDemocracy is messy; disagreement is good.\u201d<\/p>\n
He indicated the solution to an unhealthy foundation is a government that delivers and can restore faith in leadership, suggesting how better than to honor America\u2019s 250th anniversary than by committing to build a better community.<\/p>\n
Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel delivers the 2026 State of Lehigh County Address Feb. 26 at Coca-Cola Park, 1050 IronPigs Way, Allentown.PRESS PHOTO BY TABITHA SCHADE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published March 11. 2026 11:20AM Siegel delivers first address Just two days after President Donald Trump delivered his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-135583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}