{"id":278590,"date":"2026-09-04T01:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T01:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/278590\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T01:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T01:50:10","slug":"tax-hike-likely-says-northampton-county-executive-northampton-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/278590\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax hike likely, says Northampton County executive | Northampton County"},"content":{"rendered":"

EASTON, Pa. – Northampton County property owners will likely face a tax increase in 2027, says County Executive Tara Zrinski.<\/p>\n

The county’s financial outlook was one of the topics Zrinski talked about during her address before county council on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

Former Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure did not raise taxes during his eight years in the post, and cut them once.<\/p>\n

But Zrinski said his last budget left important needs unfunded, including employee retirement contributions; the county’s contribution to its nursing home, Gracedale; and the Northampton County Jail.<\/p>\n

“Given what we’re facing — maintaining services, caring for our workforce, and catching up on long-deferred infrastructure — it’s increasingly clear we will likely have a tax increase,” Zrinski said. “I know no one wants to hear that, and moreover, no one wants to vote on that.”<\/p>\n

She did not discuss what the increase might be. The county’s tax rate has remained at 10.8 mills since McClure lowered the rate by about a mill in 2022.<\/p>\n

Zrinski did say her goal “is to keep any increase as low as possible while being honest about what responsible government requires.”<\/p>\n

She added that her administration is working to include in the 2027 budget a meaningful cost of living increase for county employees: “Wages have remained relatively stagnant, and for that, with the juxtaposition of rising costs, we need to do something.”<\/p>\n

Northampton County’s budget for the coming year is typically unveiled in early October.<\/p>\n

The discussion about the presumed tax hike comes on the heels of Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel announcing a nearly 18% tax increase there, as 69 News reported<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

Siegel, too,\u00a0blamed the increase on decisions made prior to his tenure and costs out of his administration’s control.<\/p>\n

Fiscal director search\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the Zrinski administration continues to crunch the numbers, the county is still without a fiscal director. Brandon Dunstane has been serving as acting director of fiscal affairs during the ongoing search.<\/p>\n

Zrinski previously had zeroed in on a candidate who changed her mind about accepting the position after county council cut her starting salary.<\/p>\n

When asked on Thursday night whether she had any updates on the search, Zrinski said no.<\/p>\n

“The ask of somebody to come in from a job that they’re making $130,000 to a job here for $106,000 (starting salary) is pretty bleak,” she added, and said her administration would try again in January.<\/p>\n

Other business<\/p>\n

Northampton County Council also approved a $3,000-a-month lease with Easton’s\u00a0St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church. County employees will be able to park their vehicles in a church parking lot at 900 Washington Street during daytime hours while the new parking deck at the government center is under construction.<\/p>\n

Zrinski told council the demolition of the current structure should begin sometime this month.<\/p>\n

Council also signed off on a number of grants under the 2026 Grow NorCo Grant Projects and the 2027 Hotel Room Rental Tax Grant Projects.<\/p>\n

The complete list is available in the meeting agenda packet<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTON, Pa. – Northampton County property owners will likely face a tax increase in 2027, says County Executive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,153,155,154,4958,434],"class_list":["post-278590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-city_township_county_councils","tag-northampton-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278590","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=278590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}