The Oct. 8 Lehigh County Board of Commissioners meeting began with Chief Fiscal Officer Tim Reeves, who took to the podium with some unfortunate news regarding the financial picture.<\/p>\n
Reeves explained there was hope of a state program which would lend funds to counties as a means to help bridge the gap in the continued absence of a state budget. After he recently filled out the applications, Reeves discovered that the program would only allow Lehigh County to borrow $6 million toward one specific line item, which in this case was towards child welfare programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them in the nicest terms possible, $6 million doesn\u2019t even cover the unpaid portion for last year\u2019s budget that you haven\u2019t even paid us,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n
He then continued to plea with anyone who may have the right contact at the state level that they propose ideas to allow a \u201cmechanism that allows the counties to get paid just as the lawmakers continue to get paid during the budget impasse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Geoff Brace followed with insight into another attempt at a budget which was voted on earlier in the day. Unfortunately, comments from the Senate majority leadership seem to indicate there still does not seem to be a pathway toward a majority vote on the budget.<\/p>\n
If \u201cthe prospect of a rape crisis center closing in Philadelphia, \u2026 legal services and food pantries being forced to shutter \u2026 isn\u2019t getting people to the table with a sense of urgency, I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s going to,\u201d Brace said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Jeffrey Dutt questioned Reeves as to the impact of the money-earning interest lost on the 2026 budget. Reeves responded while it is still troubling, this consideration was fortunately built into the budget as the anticipated direction was likely.<\/p>\n
County Executive Phillips Armstrong clarified, \u201cit should be very clear that the state now is sitting on that money, making money. So, they are making the money on the money that we should be having.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the citizen\u2019s input portion of the meeting, Sharon Finnegan, of Allentown, summarized in her recent visits to the Lehigh County Jail that she repeatedly has been seeing inmates report improper retaliation, punishment, cruelty with food and challenges with filing grievances. She closed by announcing her strong support for the creation of a more inclusive public prison oversight board.<\/p>\n
Ed Angelo of Milford Township requested the board \u201cadopt a resolution opposing fascism as it has been perpetrated in a federal government, particularly by one man.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to describe evidence of fascism in the military, in ICE operations, in the justice system, and the request to \u201cperp walk\u201d former FBI Director James Comey.<\/p>\n
Continuing on with the regularly scheduled agenda items for the evening, two bills were unanimously approved.<\/p>\n
The first approved an extension to the lease agreement with Davison and McCarthy PC for the lower level of the Hamilton Financial Center building. The second is between the same parties, seeking to enter into a new lease agreement through June 24, 2029.<\/p>\n
Additionally, a resolution was approved to support an application for a grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority, Pennsylvania Gaming Local Share Account, to help fund the Da Vinci Discovery Center of Science and Technology, Inc.\u2019s workforce development project.<\/p>\n
Two bills received their first reading and the first looks to adopt the 2026 Lehigh County Budget, amend the job classification and pay plans for consistency and to keep the real estate tax rate for the county at 3.78 mils.<\/p>\n
Dutt said he is proud to be part of yet another no-tax increase budget; therefore, the board will be voting \u201con the budget as proposed by the county executive\u201d due to the absence of any proposed amendments.<\/p>\n
The second bill seeks to award $260,000 in Lehigh County Affordable Housing Trust funds to four different organizations, which could bring on about 40 units.<\/p>\n
Nearing the conclusion of the event, a reminder was given to all of the approaching household hazardous waste disposal event. This will take place 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 1 at Coca-Cola Park, 1050 IronPigs Way.<\/p>\n
Due to the largely anticipated turnout, preregistration is necessary and can be done on the county website. No electronic wastes will be collected and more information about the different types of household hazardous wastes can be found on the Lehigh County website.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the last date to register to vote for the upcoming election was Oct. 20.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Zach Cole-Borghi said it has been 41 days since he was arrested and \u201cparaded through the Bethlehem City Hall. Still haven\u2019t been afforded due process, which is my constitutional right and I still haven\u2019t been provided the affidavit of probable cause. Forty-one days.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next regularly scheduled board of commissioners meeting was scheduled for Oct. 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oct. 8 Lehigh County Board of Commissioners meeting began with Chief Fiscal Officer Tim Reeves, who took…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-24563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24563","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=24563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}