{"id":70534,"date":"2025-12-25T20:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T20:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/70534\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T20:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T20:34:14","slug":"allentown-council-could-meet-tuesday-to-weigh-overriding-mayors-budget-veto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/70534\/","title":{"rendered":"Allentown council could meet Tuesday to weigh overriding mayor\u2019s budget veto"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Two exiting City Council members who thought they\u2019d seen their last meeting may have one last hurrah.<\/p>\n

Council President Daryl Hendricks and two-term member Ed Zucal waved goodbye to their colleagues Dec. 17 after the body passed a 2026 budget<\/a> that would keep the property-tax rate flat while raising trash fees.<\/p>\n

But members could be back in their seats before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Hendricks \u201cis poised\u201d to schedule a meeting for 6 p.m. Tuesday if a resolution to override Mayor Matt Tuerk\u2019s budget veto<\/a> finds two sponsors, according to City Clerk Michael Hanlon.<\/p>\n

Council passed its budget, which also requires officials to take $1.5 million from cash reserves to balance revenues and spending, by a 4-3 vote.<\/p>\n

Its supporters \u2014 Zucal, Cynthia Mota, Ce-Ce Gerlach and Natalie Santos \u2014 are the members most likely to support an override resolution.<\/p>\n

Council passed its own budget after rejecting three proposals from Tuerk. Each called for a 3.96% increase in property taxes, though the mayor was willing to negotiate on his initial request for a $135 hike in annual trash-fees.<\/p>\n

Raising the property tax while easing the trash-fee increase would shift more of the overall burden to wealthier residents and commercial property owners, as many would avoid a trash-fee increase because they use private trash services, according to Tuerk and Finance Director Bina Patel.<\/p>\n

Council\u2019s vetoed budget would\u2019ve brought savings for all Allentonians who pay taxes and trash fees when compared to Tuerk\u2019s initial proposal.<\/p>\n

But it would\u2019ve forced owners of lower-valued properties to pay more than either of the mayor\u2019s counterproposals.<\/p>\n

If council does not override Tuerk\u2019s veto, his initial proposal will take effect Jan. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Two exiting City Council members who thought they\u2019d seen their last meeting may have one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,3876,2748,121,120,3879,3553],"class_list":["post-70534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-2026-budget","tag-allentown-city-council","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-taxes","tag-mayor-matt-tuerk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70534","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=70534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}