In Allentown's Budget Bout, being fought between Mayor Matt Tuerk and City Council, we learn that both Christmas and July 4th are on the line.
Ortega said if City Council opts to override Tuerk’s veto, the city would be forced to cancel popular city events like Lights in the Parkway and 4th of July fireworks. The city would prioritize “essential city services” if council opts to not increase taxes, she said.While Tuerk started out asking for a 6.9% tax increase, he is now down to asking for a 2% hike.
As both a local commentator and advocate of the traditional park system, I know that the park department is always the victim of these skirmishes.
A local Republican, a tribe which has almost completely died out in Allentown, complains that Allentown is the victim of a one party system. While all our elected officials might be from the same party, they are not all on the same page.
Although I chose this old coal ad for the post's illustration, there is also a meme circulating with Tuerk as the Grinch stealing Christmas. Regardless of the budget, I suspect that Lights In The Parkway will be lit once again this year. What Tuerk and Council have in common is that nobody wants to be the Grinch who downgrades Christmas.
Perhaps prioritizing essential city services is what needs to be done instead of all these incessant ethnic /cultural festivals that Mayor Turek seems so enamored with doing ?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking for the vanishing tribe I will say that this came as a surprise to me. One of two things is happening, either city council members see Matt as weak, there are those willing to take him on. Possible to challenge him in 25, or it's a family squabble which happens but normally amounts to little more than hard feelings. I suspect it is the latter. Matt is in over his head, governing by virtue signally and lacking any air of authority. The ambitious sharks may be circling.
ReplyDeleteThreatens Xmas and Independence Day as that is perceived leverage. Meanwhile the City Admin gets fat with offices and positions that are academic make work. Clean and safe streets, parks, honest and purposeful development and traditional municipal services should be the focus. (Much like the 3 Rs , civics and arts should be a focus of education.) But that no longer holds true in much of America. Social engineering is an expensive and largely wasteful taxpayer funded activity of the social justice industry.
ReplyDeleteIf the Lights in the Parkway can't support itself, get rid of it. As a 25 year resident I'd rather see the money go to more cameras or police. Fireworks are fun to watch and I can do that right from my house looking in any direction, sometimes some big boomers lit off right from the sidewalks right down the road. The taxes aren't horrible compared to nicer townships and cities with good schools, but keep raising those taxes and squeezing working people to make up for the derelicts that A-town city hall tries to attract into the city for votes and those working people will flee to safer neighborhoods and better schools.
ReplyDeleteTo the comment at 8:28 am, there is a third option:
ReplyDeleteCouncil eliminates the tax hike and people are happy prior to Election Day while voting to increase pay for council members. Then, once the pay raise is approved, go back to screwing the taxpayers over and fail to override the Mayor’s veto.
That would be the ultimate bait-and -switch.
The no-tax hike budget was passed by council by a 5-2, veto-proof majority. If any one of those 5 changes their votes, they are the ones who own it along with Tuerk, Affa and Napoli (the latter two already voted against eliminating the tax hike).
That Tuerk is now offering a lower tax hike proves he didn’t do his homework before presenting his budget.
If Tuerk can’t find the money to cut, he should cut the city’s funding of the unpopular Promise Neighborhoods group whose purpose seems to be bullying the Mayor’s political opponents!
I wrote my earlier post in haste this morning and meant to write, "I suspect it's the former".
ReplyDeleteHMMMM... I was under the impression, and we were TOLD, the LITP was a money maker or at least paid its own way... if not, raise admission or kill it if it's already dieing... It was a crime to desecrate the Parkway like that to begin with!!!
ReplyDeleteJust some thoughts and observations!
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see an audit from the last 5 years of Lights in the Parkway. The cost of setting up the display, manning the display, maintenance of the display, dismantling the display, storage of the display, and cost of electric for running the display. Also, salaries of the workers that set up the display, insurance, advertising, and vandalism repair or replacement of the display items. VS. The receipt’s!
Would be very interesting to compare. Wonder which department might have that information?
You would find a loss to the taxpayers. I recall the City Controller bringing this exact conversation up at a Council meeting. He warned the administration that Lights was operating as a routine loss to the City. It was a drain on services because employees were tasked with setting up lights as a priority over other services. Each employee is paid overtime to operate during the season. The Controller brought all of this to the attention of the taxpayers and left the information with the administration to decide its fate. They had two option— to run at a loss because it was an Allentown tradition or decide to end it because of the aforementioned.
DeleteNow, the administration is using Lights as a threat to get a win on their tax increase. My choice as a taxpayer would be to end Lights and find other savings within the budget and any tax increase could be avoided.
The budget was a joke from the start. It was another poor exercise in budgeting. The Mayor had promotions in his own dept and 36 new positions—no wonder a tax increase was requested.
Yes... just go to the well and reel in more $$$ from the well... WE, the taxpaying fools that tolerate this...
DeleteAs far as fireworks go, you can see "stadium quality" fireworks displays at most intersections here in town. It's amazing we don't have more fires. They can kill "Lights" and return the Parkway to it's previous state.
ReplyDelete