Pat Browne created the NIZ by throwing it into a state bill unread by most of the state house, only Allentown qualified by its definition of population.
I have observed the NIZ since the beginning. I debated the proposal with Sy Traub on Business Matters before the first bulldozer came. I championed the former property owners who were bullied with threats of Eminent Domain by straw buyers.
Assigning Lehigh Valley Planning Commission as an independent arbitator is comical. Years ago they literally wanted to appoint Jaindl, largest property owner in Pa., to the board, before a public outcry against the absurity. They are handmaidens of the first class...
The big offense against the state taxpayers is that the new companies/employees on Hamilton Street were paying state taxes elsewhere in the Lehigh Valley, and were poached by Reilly to the NIZ. The cigarette tax is largely responsible for the "growth" figures, and taking that revenue away from the CHIP was another loss to the state. This has been the quintessential insider game. Even the LVHN is complicit, by moving department head offices to above the arena entrance, so that Reilly could harvest the highest paid employee taxes. The crime figures cited by LVPC are also misleading...the quality of life in Allentown has only gone down.
If you drive down Hamilton on a Sunday, the street certainly looks much more prosperous. You would assume that during the week the street must be teeming with people...you would be very wrong.
By poaching those tenants he put suburban office parks in financial straits, and they weren't subsidized by the taxpayers. So growth ISN'T growth when the playing field is so crooked. That cigarette tax was going to CHIP, Children's Health Insurance Program, now it's going to Reilly. Those doctors' taxes were going to the state, now they're going to Reilly.
I believe the motive and timing for the report was damage control against Jarrett Coleman's effort for scrutiny in Harrisburg. The Morning Call dutifully took the hook and carried water for the NIZ once again.
And the Morning Call should know better. They themselves sued the NIZ under the Freedom of Information Act for this same financial information. That's when they and we discovered the ugly truth that the NIZ was shielded from the Right Know Act by, you guessed it, Then Senator Pat Browne in the dark of night. The Call clearly had a moment of journalistic integrity when they undertook the investigation, now they have resorted back to form as stenographers for the controlling forces. I never even check their page anymore let alone subscribe. I have stated it a hundred times already, by covering for them, they did as much damage to Allentown as all of the crooked politicians together.
ReplyDeleteThe LVPC???? You must be kidding. They just relocated to the NIZ where they occupy the swankiest office space of any government agency in the region. What qualifications do they have to conduct an independent analysis of anything?? I wouldn't take any recommendation from LVPC seriously, its a complete farce.
ReplyDeleteCorrect, they relocated from the middle of the valley to the NIZ waterfront, the first tenant besides Jaindl's own bank operation center. B Bradley recently recommended that grants should be used to "landscape" congested Rt. 22, after Browne redirected widening money for an additional exit for another Jaindl warehouse park. The commission of that report is an insult to the concept of integrity.
DeleteThey (ANIZDA) are bracing for the full audit report the State has commissioned. Not sure if it’s sad or comical.
DeleteOnce again, another incomplete, misleading, and somewhat useless analysis of the Pennsylvania real estate development scam known as the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement District (or NIZ).
ReplyDeleteWe’ve been told the same real estate footprint was producing 22 million state tax dollars BEFORE the NIZ was launched. Now, after many years in operation, we are led to believe this innovative program has been a financial success. Let’s take a look at this claim by answering one simple question.
How much revenue, ABOVE and BEYOND the usual accumulated amount (pre-NIZ) flowed into our state coffers over the duration of this new program?
My answer is: Some amount less than would have come in WITHOUT the NIZ being established. Maybe, I’m wrong. How can we know based on this reporting?
As you mentioned, Mr. Molivinsky, much of the claimed state revenue was already being collected from elsewhere within our state. No gains there.
I will also point out, there have been several prior years when the usual $22 million revenue was NOT forwarded to the state, but rather to the developers. Offset any current cumulative summary with those losses, too.
In effect, the NIZ continues on as a financial loser for our state. Yes, we see new buildings . . . . but, we don’t own them!
Sounds like Coleman is tightening the noose. ANIZDA doing everything they can to try and go into damage control.
ReplyDeleteOne more question, please. The article mentions payments made toward construction of the arena. Who is the legal owner of the arena?
ReplyDeleteNIZ is another example of why citizens have lost faith in what were once trustworthy entities lead by honest "community leaders". Whether it's governments, businesses, hospitals, education, the press, guiding ethics have been replaced by power and money. Do they think we're stupid, that we won't notice or perhaps understand? We haven't reached it quite yet, but there will be a day of reckoning for this wretched turn our "leaders" have taken.
ReplyDelete7:37 - My memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but I don’t remember many (or any) stories about companies from out-of-state moving into the NIZ.
ReplyDeleteYou would think that with the hostile tax environments of NYC and NJ, coupled with their extended and draconian Covid policies, that Allentown would have been an ideal destination for many NY/NJ companies to relocate to.
But instead, only one (now two) developers were allowed to corner the NIZ real estate market, and the result was poaching existing companies from elsewhere in PA, including the municipalities around Allentown and even from elsewhere inside of Allentown itself!
Yes, it’s been a boon to Reilly’s bottom line as he became the city’s largest landlord. But I continue to believe that the NIZ could only have worked if other companies were allowed to build (and own) their own buildings, and the NIZ incentives were only maximized for drawing in new businesses (and out-of-state owners and tenants).
The other missing element of the NIZ was a cap on the amount of properties that are under common control. Imagine the number of out-of-state companies that could have been lured here with many different owners reaching out to their contacts. Instead, the NIZ has been limited by the size of Reilly’s Rolodex. By not capping the number of properties in the NIZ under common control, the NIZ simply became a den of incest.
The NIZ Board, led by Traub, only exists to protect and encourage that status quo. They certainly don’t even pretend to have an interest in protecting the taxpayers at any level.
Appointing the LV Planning Commission, A TENANT OF THE NIZ, only confirms that.
anon@8:06: I commend Coleman for following through with his campaign promise...However, how long and strong he stays on the case remains to be seen. Although the house agreed to the audit, how much support he has in Harrisburg for his effort is questionable. If he wants to make a career of Harrisburg, this quest may not be in his best interest. Furthermore, while the NIZ is highly ethically flawed, it is legal.
ReplyDeleteanon@8:58: While the NIZ takes the cake for public abuse of the taxpayers, there has always been insider shenanigans, the formation of the APA for one.
anon@8:58: your point about more developers, especially from N.Y/N.J. is excellent. However, among other reasons, Reilly had agreements of sale on most parcels within the "map" from the get go.
Thank you for being the only true watchdog on the NIZ fiasco. If PA taxpayers paid for Reilly’s buildings, shouldn’t PA taxpayers own them? This whole arrangement was a travesty from the beginning. Like the Trojan horse, Reilly followed the arena public financing package and conveniently, with Browne’s help, twisted it to include private development with absolutely no requirement to create net new jobs. The NIZ just bled suburban office buildings by pulling tenants outside the NIZ by offering ridiculously low rents as an early inducement. Hard to pass up a $5 per square foot rental package when you were paying 4 or 5 times that rental rate outside downtown Allentown. The NIZ is totally ludicrous and was rigged from the start. Thankfully we have a State Representative that is trying to peel back the onion and expose the NIZ for what it is. And to have the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission poised to supposedly provide an unbiased assessment of the NIZ is the most laughable thing that I’ve heard on a long time.
ReplyDeleteThe appointment of the LVPC to do an INDEPENDENT analysis of the NIZ is troubling for many reasons, but primarily it’s because the two principals involved know better.
ReplyDeleteSy Traub is an attorney, and unless he’s gone senile he knows that even the appearance of a conflict of interest destroys any guise of independence. Clearly, with the LVPC now being a tenant of Jaindl within the NIZ, that threshold has been reached.
Similarly, Becky Bradley has been around long enough to know better, and should also realize that the LVPC has a conflict.
My thought is that Traub needs to be replaced on the NIZ board, and Bradley needs to be replaced on the LVPC. Both have tarnished the organizations they claim to serve by agreeing to this arrangement.
While the democrat governor and the Republican revenue secretary, along with the split legislature might not be willing to put pressure on the NIZ Board to make that happen, the county executives of Lehigh and Northampton (and the elected commissioners) should pull the county funding from the planning commission to pressure the removal of Bradley.
If the county politicians don’t do this, they are part of the problem and should be removed as well.
anon@9:54: I linked this post to two large Allentown issue facebook pages, with a combined membership of 17.8 thousand. Between the two groups the post garnered one like, and no comments. That's how much interest the public has in this issue.
DeleteMost are just struggling to sustain there rent and food bills?
DeletePerhaps you had little response because the whole situation is hopeless. Little we can do about it. I remember all that chaos and screaming down at city council over the land grabs. People were extremely upset. The big boys went ahead and did it anyway. I don't think I ever saw another time where so many people were extremely vocal Apparently they don't give a rats patootie how pissed people get. So is there actually anything people can do this far into it when they ignored the intense anger before the takeover even took place? Looks like they are steering the boat and where all just along for the ride no matter how much we voice disapproval.
DeleteAlthough on a much smaller scale right here, we citizens are being ignored much the same way as we are on the national level. Our nation’s three branches of government are going rogue
DeleteMM @ 10:43 - Understood and not surprised. That’s the true cost of the Morning Call coverup (on non-coverage), and why the city continues to have the same failed leadership, despite some of the faces changing.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I believe that we may well look back on this time as better leadership than in the future, and also better MC reporting.
DeleteWe now have a government only for the betterment of the government. ALL of the branches have gone stark raving mad, not only with power, but also with OUR money. There is no attempt to do anything fiscally responsibly.... whatever the cost, they fleece us for the funds. Look at your utility bills... the sky seems to be the limit.
ReplyDeleteWe have no journalism, only cheer-leading.
As we already know, the NIZ forcefully took properties... ask the poor gal that had a hairdressing business with beautiful apartments above... ask her how fairly she was treated.
Here's another newsflash for you folks... they're planning on redeveloping the entire downtown, as per a succession of articles in the once reporting Morning Call. That fact explains a lot.
Our government employees are just putting in their time to get their pensions. I believe few really care about the job(s). Glad I'm on the way out and not the way in!!! Pity the kid's futures with all the nonsense parading as good government.... shame on the whole lot of them!!! Just my $.02...
Here’s a poster who truly gets it, and isn’t afraid to say it. America is headed in the WRONG direction. It will take time to recover what’s been lost. But, the fix needs to begin now.
ReplyDeleteMy plan is to continue criticizing our lying news media. In addition, if any candidate is in office now, that individual will not get my vote. The status quo is NOT acceptable. Our house needs cleaning!
12:51... The fix IS in and we need to UNFIX it and get back to sanity!!! There, fixed it for ya!!!
DeleteI agree... vote the incumbents out. Also, no vote to any candidate that cross files... if you want to be a dem/repub... at least do us the courtesy of running as an independent.
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