Pawlowski, on his way to prison, gave Ray O'Connell a lump of coal for Christmas. While the former Mayor For Life's exit to the big house made Ray mayor, it also injured him with a necessary tax hike. Pawlowski put his political career ahead of good government by not raising taxes, and instead drained the city reserve fund. While ten years of a 2% hike would have been politically palatable, O'Connell must now ask for 27% to keep the city operating.
This same legacy destroyed a county executive years ago... A huge tax hike is a huge present to your political opponents. While City Council has the option of allowing the budget to pass by default with little political consequence to themselves, O'Connell will shoulder the voter's wrath. If the proposed budget goes into effect as is, Ray's reelection bid could be an uphill struggle.
ADDENDUM: City Council has scheduled a special meeting for Monday December 10. This presents an opportunity for the budget and tax hike to be scaled back.
Never discount the utter stupidity of the Allentown voters. They have re-elect and elected incompetent shills and users for years now. Due to this sad record there will likely be no good candidates running for any office in the city next year.
ReplyDeleteToo bad Bill White is no longer around to dress the whole thing up for Ray.
ReplyDeletescott@7:25, if you want to dismiss everybody who was affiliated with pawlowski, you would have to turn the clock back or forward 15 years.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a need to dispel a couple of myths here. Actually, they’d be better classified as “big lies” since I think they are political arguments started by those in power to excuse their incompetence. Sadly, Allentown is a city with little political memory, which has hurt its residents in the past, the present, and the immediate future.
ReplyDeleteMYTH/BIG LIE #1:
The first myth is that this massive property tax hike is somehow ok and even necessary, since we should have had a series of minor tax hikes over the years instead. A new Allentown Councilman was quoted as saying something like that in a recent article. That's the same selective BS that Pawlowski used on taxpayers for years. This (insert name) tax has to be raised since it's lower than it should be. But disregard this other (insert name) tax that's higher than it should be.
The fact is that the lack of property tax growth has been more than made up in hikes in the Earned Income Tax alone. If you take the actual EIT and Property Tax - Current numbers from the 2005 financial reports and combine them, you have approximately $35.4 million dollars. If you factor in your fictional 2% increase every year, and that would bring you to about $44.9 million total that should have been collected in 2017. In reality, the actual amount collected from those two taxes in 2017 was a combined $58.75 million. And let's not forget that the keeping property taxes low was previously used to justify (to protect seniors) the passage of higher EIT taxes as well as other taxes like the OPT/EMS tax. Now that we’re no longer concerned about the tax burden on seniors, will we also see a reduction in those other taxes? Of course not.
So it would seem that City Hall has been doing quite well at picking our pockets. It doesn't really matter what they call it when they take it out of our wallets – it’s still money that we have to pay.
So I think it’s fair to conclude that the people of Allentown ARE NOT UNDERTAXED. And remember, that’s just taxes and doesn’t include increases in permits, fees, and direct charges for services. Or the stealth property tax given to us by City Hall in the form of a rainwater tax. Or the cost of the ill-conceived cash infusion from the lease of the water system, which will cost taxpayers about $750 million (including interest) for less than $250 million in cash.
What we’ve had is a decade-plus focus on revenue without any real attempt to reduce expenditures. Instead of using that additional revenue to get its financial house in order, City Hall has dug a deeper hole for taxpayers to fill. In a year that he presented a budget with a whopping 27% tax hike, Mayor O’Connell still saw fit to hand out raises to city employees. Council COULDN’T EVEN REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF THE RAISES BY A HALF OF A PERCENT. So it would seem not everyone has to sacrifice, just Allentown taxpayers.
These facts don’t even address the effect of high taxation on where residents choose to live, and businesses choose to locate. High earners have fled the city, as have businesses (other than those in the tax-advantaged NIZ). Why pay more to live or do business in Allentown when you can keep more of what you earn just by setting up outside the city line? Allentown is not Manhattan, and there are plenty of nice homes (with good school districts) and prime business locations just 10 minutes from Center City.
MYTH/BIG LIE #2:
ReplyDeleteThe second myth states that Pawlowski left the city finances in shambles, and poor Ray O’Connell (or City Council) now has to deal with the mess. O’Connell and Council have been left with a “lump of coal”. This is the more devious of the two phony narratives coming out of City Hall.
Ray O’Connell and most of City Council are not political outsiders. They are Pawlowski cronies, many of whom were endorsed by Pawlowski if not receiving direct financial contributions from the person they were supposed to be a check and balance on. In reality, they rubber-stamped whatever Pawlowski put in front of them. They are insiders in the most basic sense. They don’t get to claim they didn’t know about the City’s financial situation.
It’s funny that Ray O’Connell didn’t mention his plan for a 27% tax hike when he ran for Mayor last year, isn’t it? Yet, he was President of City Council for the years before the election. Was he so incompetent that he didn’t understand the City’s financial position during all the years he served on Council? Or did he just hide the need for a tax hike from the voters when he was running for Mayor? The same can be said for/asked of most on Council.
Which brings us to the big question of “What has really changed at City Hall”? I would say nothing. Despite the largest municipal corruption scandal in the region’s history, they’re still sailing the same ship, in the same direction, towards the same iceberg with nothing but the captain changed. There needs to be a big broom taken to City Hall. That starts with political positions that Pawlowski built into the city workforce, and changing out the culture of corruption that was built during Pawlowski’s tenure. This budget was O’Connell’s (and Council’s) chance to do that, and NOTHING IS CHANGING!
Which brings us to the bigger question of why. Why hasn’t the big broom been taken to City Hall? Why haven’t any meaningful reforms been implemented? Why is Council still getting a budget only two months before year-end? Surely something as simple as starting the budget process earlier should have had support from those on Council and former Council President O’Connell. Especially since we're told the city is in such a dire financial situation.
But we’ve gotten nothing. Why? Are they hiding something? Are they concerned that if they clean out Pawlowski cronies, those people would tell what they know about Council and O’Connell’s involvement in what was going on with Pawlowski?
Those are the questions that need to be asked, and that the Morning Call doesn’t seem interested in investigating.
I'm afraid you're right. Excellent analysis.
ReplyDeleteMike, life isn't about what one wants but what is, therefore I have the right and the grounds to dismiss anyone and everyone asdicsasso with Ed as part of the problem then and now.
ReplyDeleteunknown@9:11&9:18, there are those who lament that allentown is a one party town, and blame that... there are others who want a clean broom, but lets discuss reality.... since allentown is a one party town(and it is), what's the odds of the clean broom coming? frankly, every year i find the voters less informed, remember pawlowski won reelection while indicted.
ReplyDeletein this environment i will accept incremental reform, and i think that it's too early to tell if we're getting any or not.
MM -
ReplyDeleteYou are correct - Allentown is paying dearly for being a one-party town. One party rule invites corruption, and after a while the party in charge stops representing even their own people. That's happened in Allentown, and one-party rule there definitely needs to end. Republicans need to find candidates to run for Mayor/Council, and Democrats need to help get them elected.
It used to be that PEOPLE supported the best candidate for office, no matter what party, and would recognize the danger if Council leaned too far towards one side. I can only hope that we can return to that time.
Like you, I also am aware that Pawlowski won re-election while indicted. Hyman was a life-long democrat but many "open-minded" democrats wouldn't vote for him because he had an 'R' next to his name. So it's an uphill battle.
But let's not forget that O'Connell ran as a spoiler in the General Election after losing in the primary. It was a race O'Connell couldn't win, but I don't think the plan was ever to win the election. O'Connell was put into the interim Mayor position by the current council, and if not him it likely would have been another Pawlowski crony in Thiel. I'd be all for O'Connell if he were doing anything, but O'Connell's (and council's) ACTIONS have been to protect the status quo. That's troubling.
That said, I don't believe that any one party has a monopoly on reform, and I would have welcomed City Hall proving me wrong. This past year (and budget) would have been the perfect opportunity for O'Connell or Council to put some reforms in place. ANY reforms would have at least acknowledged that they realize that something was very wrong and that things needed to change.
I too have a hard time seeing even the incremental reform that you mention. And I don't think it's too early to see it if it were coming. It's basic leadership. Good city employees needed reform to be quick and visible - VERY VISIBLE - so they'd know that they no longer have to worry about losing their jobs if they point out corruption and wrongdoing. Residents needed it to be VERY VISIBLE so they could begin regain their trust in their government.
But we've gotten nothing. The reason you can't see the incremental reform yet is because it isn't coming.
I think it says something about City Hall that they're not even TRYING to make it look like they're doing something. At least Lucy held the football for Charlie Brown before she pulled it away. We're not even getting a look at the ball.
BTW, during his many years in office, Pawlowski routinely ignored and violated the City's Home Rule Charter.
ReplyDeleteThe charter contains many taxpayer protections, that if followed would have prevented the City from getting into the hole it is in today. It would be nice if O'Connell (and Council) did something different than Pawlowski and actually stood up for the Charter.
Instead, they are poised to allow the proposed property tax hike to go into effect by default. This is a clear violation on Section 807(D) of the Charter which REQUIRES 5 of 7 on council to vote to approve a property tax hike.
While Section 805 of the Charter might allow a default budget, it does not approve a property tax hike. At best, there will be a default spending (and revenue) plan without the legal authorization to fully fund it.
Yet O'Connell and Council are silent. Even those on council who supposedly are against the tax hike are silent.
So the Charter is going to be violated once again. O'Connell will get his tax hike; all on Council will be able to say they didn't vote for it; some on Council will try to say they did everything they could to stop it; and a Solicitor will once again argue against the clear language in the Charter to make it all appear proper.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
The Mayor and the City Council were all members of Pawloski's orbit and were knowledgeable of the City's financial woes
ReplyDeleteWow ! Finally had time to read "Unknown's" posts. Great analysis and knowledge of the city on display. Mike please put his comments on all of your facebook posts.
ReplyDeleteHere are three things that I find to be 'great' about the 47-times convicted felon Pawlowski's beloved "City Without Limits" :
ReplyDelete1. Allentown's lifelong and loyal Democrats just could not begin to bring themselves to vote for the fellow lifelong Democrat, Nat Hyman, simply because Hyman had a (R) next to his name on the ballot in spite of the fact that everybody & anybody who knows anything understands full well that ONLY Republicans can be properly labeled as "partisan".
2. Interim Mayor Ray O'Connell and six fellow spending addicts on City Council originally committed to blowing an astonishing $ 1.25 million dollars on a demolition job that Hyman ultimately proved CAN be done for as little as $ 200,000 in spite of the fact that Comrade Apparatchik Councilman Daryl Hendricks demanded that Hyman "put his big boy pants on".
3. All the incredibly special and wonderful Limousine Liberals living in the leafy West End undoubtedly finding new and better ways to bash the current President and his Trump Tax Cuts day in and day out while doing a bang up job of hiding all the otherwise unmistakable pain normally associated with absorbing the sudden and abrupt 27% property tax hike that is widely expected to become reality very soon.
But, hey, Happy Free Healthcare to one and all nevertheless!!!
Sincerely,
ROLF OELER