{"id":78955,"date":"2026-01-06T03:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/78955\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T03:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:58:08","slug":"new-allentown-city-council-sworn-in-amid-2026-budget-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/78955\/","title":{"rendered":"New Allentown City Council sworn in amid 2026 budget uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two newcomers to Allentown City Council were sworn in to office Monday evening, even as uncertainty continues to surround the status of the city\u2019s 2026 budget.<\/p>\n

In a packed room full of friends and family members of Allentown\u2019s elected officials, judges Linda Vega and Michael D\u2019Amore swore in Mayor Matt Tuerk as he begins his second term, as well as incumbent council members Cynthia Mota and Natalie Santos, and newcomers Jeremy Binder and Cristian Pungo.<\/p>\n

Council also bid farewell to members Ed Zucal and Daryl Hendricks. Zucal unsuccessfully challenged Tuerk for mayor last year and did not run for another term on council, while Hendricks narrowly lost his bid for re-election.<\/p>\n

City Council members elected Santo Napoli to serve as council president for the 2026 calendar year; he will be charged with arranging council agendas and presiding over meetings.<\/p>\n

The new council will be tasked with addressing lingering questions about the city\u2019s 2026 budget.<\/a><\/p>\n

Council on Dec. 30 failed to override Tuerk\u2019s veto of their budget, which removed a 4% tax increase that Tuerk said is necessary to keep city services operating. That left the city without a budget approved by council for 2026.<\/p>\n

Tuerk has maintained that the failed override vote leaves intact his original budget proposal with the 4% tax hike. The city has maintained its operations in 2026 via the original budget he proposed in October, which includes a $140 increase to trash fees, in addition to the tax hike.<\/p>\n

However, council solicitor Maria Montero has said the city has no official budget for 2026, pointing to a 2019 Allentown voter referendumin which 83% of voters approved a change to the city charter that prevents a mayor\u2019s budget from going into effect by default without approval from City Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new council took no action Monday to address the budget uncertainty.<\/p>\n

In an interview following the meeting, Napoli said that council will work to address lingering questions about the budget in the coming days. He said council will likely meet publicly to discuss the budget and hold a vote on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping to have an update in the next day or two,\u201d Napoli said. \u201cBut it is something that is definitely on our radar, and it\u2019s something that we will address as a body. We owe that much to our residents and also, you know, to each other, make sure that we address it in full transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

In interviews following their swearing-in remarks, council newcomers Cristian Pungo and Jeremy Binder said they would take time in the coming days to review the budget before determining how they would vote on it or any compromise proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed that they couldn\u2019t get into an agreement last year,\u201d Pungo said. Honestly, if I was asked to vote right now, I don\u2019t know that I could truly make a decision without sitting down and going through that budget, and making sure we\u2019re making a responsible decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere I am right now is that I just got sworn in, so I really need to have some time here to consult with council, consult with our solicitor to get information before I can render an opinion on that,\u201d Binder said.<\/p>\n

Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two newcomers to Allentown City Council were sworn in to office Monday evening, even as uncertainty continues to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3878,"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-78955","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\/78955","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=78955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}