Allentown City Council will consider a new proposal backed by Mayor Matt Tuerk, who is aiming to win over skeptical members, that would hike city property taxes by 4%, but reduce an increase to the city\u2019s trash fee.<\/p>\n
Last month in a 5-2 vote, council rejected a 4% property tax increase proposed by Tuerk, and voted to instead take an additional $1.5 million from the city\u2019s cash reserves to balance the 2026 budget. In an interview following the vote, Tuerk blasted council\u2019s \u201casinine decisions\u201d and said he may veto council\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, city finance director Bina Patel presented details to council of a compromise proposal, that would keep the proposed tax increase at 4% but reduce the increase to city trash fees by $25. Council narrowly approved a new trash contract with Allentown-based J.P. Mascaro and Sons late last year after its contract with Waste Management expired.<\/p>\n
The new, five-year contract with Allentown-based J.P. Mascaro and Sons cost the city $16 million last year and will increase 5% for each consecutive year. The increase in cost \u2014 the city paid around $10 million in 2024 for trash collection services by comparison \u2014 means that the trash fee increased from the current $415 to $605 in 2025, and would jump to $740 next year.<\/p>\n
However, Patel proposed reducing next year\u2019s trash fee to $715, and taking around $800,000 from the city\u2019s general fund to make up the difference. The city\u2019s solid waste fund, which handles the city\u2019s trash contract, will pay back the $800,000 to the general fund over a period of five years.<\/p>\n
Patel said the reduced trash fee is a reasonable compromise that would keep the city\u2019s finances strong without over-burdening low-income residents. Around half of the city\u2019s residents would see an increase of $26 or less annually under the proposed new millage rate, Tuerk has said, so the compromise proposal could have a net neutral or even negative financial burden on lower income people who\u2019s homes have a lower assessed property value.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposal in front of you, it is a fair proposal, it is helping the taxpayers,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n
The city has around $50 million in cash reserves, but Patel and city financial advisor Tom Beckett cautioned council members against pulling cash from the reserves as a means to balance the budget going forward. Keeping an ample amount in the city\u2019s reserves is how the city remains financially healthy and stable, Beckett said.<\/p>\n
Some council members who opposed Tuerk\u2019s tax increase last month remained skeptical of the proposal, and questioned why the city could not find alternative sources of revenue to fill the city\u2019s budget deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are just kicking the can down the road, because at some point, you are going to have to make up that $25,\u201d said council member Ed Zucal, referring to the $25 reduction the mayor is proposing.<\/p>\n
City Council is scheduled for a final vote on the 2026 budget at 6 p.m. Dec. 10 at City Hall.<\/p>\n
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allentown City Council will consider a new proposal backed by Mayor Matt Tuerk, who is aiming to win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,433,182,139,28,50,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-51667","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","11":"tag-lehigh-county","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pennsylvania","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51667","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=51667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}