What a coincidence that Jarrett Coleman has been pushing for audits of the NIZ, and that the NIZ found some extra moola to give back to Pa. Understand that besides Coleman, there is no pressure on NIZ board, whatsoever. On the contrary, Reilly keeps building and the board keeps approving.
Although no authorization in the original legislation, the board now allots itself close to $800K for operating expenses. In any state except Pennsylvania, the Revenue Department might be keeping tabs, but here the NIZ architect himself is the Revenue Director!?!
The recent dividend from Coleman's tenacity about NIZ audits hopefully is just the beginning. The fact that other state legislators from outside the Lehigh Valley aren't leading this effort is testament to how broken Harrisburg has become. That Josh Shapiro is a party hero, doesn't speak well for the depth of their bench.
In January PA will have a new attorney general, a Republican named Dave Sunday. Perhaps he will Join Jarrod in his efforts to root out the truth. As well state auditor general Republican Tim Defore needs only to be asked by an elected PA official to open an audit of any PA public entity. An all hands on deck might be required to break the cabal of secrecy.
ReplyDeleteIt’s all about the amount of NEW tax revenue added to our state’s treasury. In my view, the amount of ADDITIONAL revenue brought in to Pennsylvania that can be solely attributed to having established the Allentown NIZ is what determines success or failure for all Pennsylvania taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteObviously, Allentown has been enriched because state taxpayers are funding the new, but privately owned, buildings. But, how have taxpayers in, say, Punxsutawney benefitted?
We need to see a “before and after” net tax income spreadsheet detailing the past 15 years covering the designated NIZ zone. It’s critical not to include in those figures, taxes that were already coming in from the SAME payers who were once located in this same state. That’s not additional revenue!
To my knowledge all the tenants have been poached from elsewhere in the valley. So while there is no benefit to Pa., the city and Allentown School district did benefit. Likewise our neighbors, Saucon, South Whitehall, etc. have lost that revenue. It has also fostered shenanigans, such as LVHN locating ghost offices for payroll purposes. As more comes to light, I don't think that it will be a model for integrity.
DeleteMy hat is off to Senator Coleman who, as a freshman legislator, has the courage to publicly expose the reality of what the NIZ is actually accomplishing - enriching a few rich white guys who probably don’t even live in Allentown. J.B. Reilly and his merry band of campaign contributors know zero political boundaries as they both contribute to Democrats and Republicans who have worked hard to keep a lid on this taxpayer travesty.
ReplyDeleteAll I see on national news outlets is that Josh Shapiro is a rising national star for the Democratic Party, but it sickens me to how much investigative journalism these “news” outlets really complete. Shapiro was a bought and paid for State Rep and Montco County Commissioner (very similar to some Mayor we knew in Allentown not so long ago 😂) but now Democrats think he can walk on water. Even the tax taxpayers had to payout about $300,000 to cover up one of Shapiro’s aide who was kept on the job after the aide was accused of sexual harassment.
Just follow the money and see the major contributions that go to Shapiro (Reilly, Joe Topper, etc) and you’ll realize he’s nothing but an Ed Pawlowski who hasn’t been charged with a crime.
I wrestle with the concept of comments, because they are almost exclusively anonymous. BTW, I do not believe for a moment that the commenters have sensitive jobs, or otherwise they would be shouting from the rooftops.
DeleteEd Pawlowski was convicted because he based city contracts on contributions to his campaigns, not to value for the city.
In my observation Shapiro has made appointments and grants in which I question his judgement, but NOT his integrity.
MM - I am not one of comments posted on your site today, but why would you think that anonymous commenters need to have “sensitive jobs” to have a legitimate reason to want to remain anonymous?
ReplyDeleteWe just witnessed a CEO being murdered in cold blood by gunshots to the back and some “people” are hailing the murderer as a hero. Others are threatening the employee of the Pennsylvania McDonald’s who called the police to turn in the killer, while others are flooding Yelp with negative reviews of that same McDonald’s restaurant.
My point is that some people are crazy, so why expect everyone commenting to unnecessarily subject themselves (or their employers) to the sick retribution of the lunatics? I would think that you would understand that, since your blog - and some commenters who have chosen to identify themselves - have become the target of a sick troll for years.
You can certainly choose to reject anonymous comments, but that seems only to be playing into the desires of the crazies to silence any viewpoints other than their own.
Unfortunately, most of the comments submitted to the blogs are anonymous. While I accept anonymous comments, I shy away from those that make accusations of criminality.
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