NorCo Council Rejects Budget Amendment That Would Give LVPC Over $1 Million in 2026

Back in October, during a budget hearing for Northampton County Council, the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission (LVPC) requested $965,500 for next year. That's a problem. Executive Lamont McClure has only set aside $625,000 for the bi-county venture. At last week's budget amendment meeting, Council members John Brown and Lori Vargo Heffner tried to give LVPC an additional $461,375 by taking the money from Grow NorCo future grants. They failed. Five votes are needed to move something forward for consideration on December 4, when the budget is adopted. Only four Council members supported the increase. Two Council members - John Goffredo and Ron Heckman - might have given a fifth or even a sixth vote, but they were absent

LVPC, which serves both Lehigh and NorCo, plans regional land use, transportation, recreation, economic development, storm water management, and environmental impact studies. It reviews about 300 subdivision plans a year, just in Northampton County. Most importantly, it provides technical assistance to smaller local governments that have no planners. But does this justify what is 50% increase in the county contribution next year? Lehigh County thinks so and has already voted to. give LVPC what it wants. 

NorCo is a different story. 

"Why do we want to give Lehigh Valley Planning Commission all this money?" demanded Council member Ken Kraft.  "You heard them when they were here. They have a huge budget surplus." 

Council member John Brown supported an increase and said it was part of the agreement we have with our sister county. But in the eyes of Kraft and many others going back to former Council President Wayne Grube, we are treated more like the ugly red-headed step-sister.

Kraft went on a tear.  "I didn't tell them to move into a new building. I didn't tell them to incur all this new debt that they did and I don't think our taxpayers should pay for that. And 90% of it was in salaries alone. ... I think they need to figure out how to pay their bills without handouts. I'm a strong No. .... I can't believe we're doing this." ... "It's ludicrous to give this kind of money to them when they said most of it is for salaries. Remember, they are the people who brought you the warehouses all over the county. They told every one of these little municipalities back in Walt Dealtry's days, if you remember, to change their zoning and planning to allow what happened. And then in the future, we're like 'Oh my God, there's warehouses and cars and everything everywhere.' Who gave us that? The LVPC. ... They have a lot of reserves. We should have their reserves."

"For us to be so far off from Lehigh County is concerning to me," responded Council President Lori Vargo Heffner. She also told Kraft that some of the municipalities in his district rely on LVPC for planning.

Council member Jeff Warren, donning his Solomon costume, is willing to cut the baby in half. He is willing to give LVPC some of what it wants, but not all. 

In the end, a motion to sweeten the LVPC handout by $461,375 failed in a 4-3 vote. Council members Vargo Heffner, Brown, Jeff Corpora and Tom Giovanni voted Yes. Kraft, Warren and Kelly Keegan voted No. 

Expect to see another effort to provide this money to LVPC when the full Council meets on December 4. 

Jeff Warren's Proposal for Public Database of Blighted Properties Panned by NorCo Council

By a 6-2 vote, Northampton County Council voted last week to reject a proposal (you can read it here) by Council member Jeff Warren to establish a public database for blighted properties inside the county. He only had support from Council member Kelly Keegan. 

Warren, who is running for State Rep and would probably like to be Council President next year, claimed that blighted properties and absentee landlords are becoming more prevalent, and thinks a county-wide public database, administered by the county, would apparently shame owners into remediating code violations. "We have a ton of properties that are being neglected," said Warren, who added that this is "an aging community."

It certainly is, and I'll be the first to admit I am very blighted. I am listed as such on several public databases.

After reading the resolution in its entirety, which took about five minutes and with the usual rhetorical emphasis at certain points, Warren gave an equally lengthy sermon in response to a question from Council member Ron Heckman, who simply wanted to know how much it would cost. After about five minutes of pontificating, Warren eventually admitted he did not know.

Heckman, who incidentally has great hair but is otherwise also blighted, had his own soliloquy. He pointed out that the county exists for very limited purpose (courts, county bridges, election and administration of human services) and is barely able to do that. "We have an infinite need and finite resources," he said. "I don't want us to get into zoning and code enforcement or anything like that." He derided Warren's proposal as "more empire building than anything else." He said Warren's idea is "far afield" from what "county government is all about." 

Council member Ken Kraft, who once served on Bethlehem's Zoning Hearing Board, agreed with Heckman. "This is overreaching," he said. "This is not in our purview. ... We don't set zoning codes. We don't set those laws. They've nothing to do with us." He added that when Wilson Borough's Dixie factory "went to Hell" for 40 years, the municipality did nothing to correct it.

Kraft is also blighted. 

Of course, Warren had to respond again. He admitted that the state is considering a statewide database, which has passed the House. This begs the question why the county would need to do it as well.   

By the way, what the hell is blight anyway? Some might think pink flamingos look great while others think they are tacky. Some people like the natural look in their yards while others insist on mowing every 30 seconds. Council member John Brown noted that definition is far from uniform. 

I am concerned that this could be weaponized to shame elderly and low-income property owners who simply lack the resources to maintain properties to the highest standard. As for absentee landlords, do you really think they will care if their blighted property is listed on a public website?  That's why they are absentees. 

So yes, like Kraft and Heckman, I agree this is way beyond why county government exists. But unlike them, I think this is a terribly stupid idea. 

73 Court-Appointed Employees to Get $450,410 Raise

At last week's meeting of Northampton County Council, a pay raise totaling $450,410 was approved for 73 court-appointed employees. Thy include domestic relations conference officers, probation officers, pretrial services officers, law clerks, supervisors and even the court's accountant. The salaries were approved mostly by a 7-1 vote, with Ken Kraft dissenting and John Goffredo being absent. (You can see the numerous positions involved here.)

Earlier that week, President Judge Craig Dally told Council that the majority of these employees were at one time part of a union, but disbanded in 2019. When that happened, these employees should have been moved from union to career service PayScales, but they were never moved over as they should have been. 

Were these employees being punished for decertifying from a union? What I can say is that when they disbanded, the county initially refused to give them a retroactive 2% payraise that was slotted for career service workers that year. Two of Council's former members, both of whom just happened to be union agents, wanted to stiff these workers. And initially, they succeeded. "They made the choice to leave the union and that was their choice," said Kevin Lott at the time. He was among four Council members (including then Council member Tara Zrinski and now Council President Lori Vargo Heffner) who voted to deny these workers a pittance that would cost the county a grand total of $69,000 for 64 court-appointed professionals. 

Though this raise was eventually passed, these former union members were never moved over to the higher career service PayScales. 

"I wasn't aware of this," said Judge Dally. "Had I known, I would have come here sooner." 

Judge Dally was under the impression that these raises were going to be part of the 2026 budget, but was that never happened, either. 

This could be a misunderstanding. It could also be an administration intent on punishing employees for having left the union.  

Interestingly, the one Council member who balked at this migration was Ken Kraft, himself a former union agent. He was more than willing to let these employees stew in the wages of an expired union contract that was at least 6 years old. 

These raises are effective now, not next year. Judge Dally told Council he had the money in his budget to cover it. 

Proposal to Double NorCo's Rainy Day Fund Fails By a 4-4 Vote

At last night's meeting, Northampton County Council nixed a proposal to double its rainy-day fund from 5% to 10% of general fund expenditures. The measure, which required five votes to become county law, was supported by Council members John Brown, Jeff Corpora, Tom Giovanni and Lori Vargop Heffner. It was opposed by Council members Ken Kraft, Kelly Keegan, Jeff Warren and Ron Heckman. Council member John Goffredo, who could have tipped the balance one way or the other, was absent.

Before the vote, incoming Executive Tara Zrinski told Council that she already has serious reservations about the budget proposed for next year. (I outlined them here). She also opposes doubling the rainy-day fund. "Let's call this what it is," she said. "It is an unfunded mandate that fails to meet our statutory and moral obligations while burdening future administrations and misleading the public on fiscal stabilization." She called the 10% figure an "arbitrary hurdle that is out of step with the intent of GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) That intent, she asserted, is "clarity and transparency, not artificial inflation of reserves for optics over substance." 

She is particularly irked that Council would even consider this ordinance in the face of a proposed budget that already "slashes essential services" like two prison rehabilitation programs. She noted that a 10% rainy-day fund would require her administration to pony up approximately an additional $8 million. She added her displeasure at the failure to fund the pension fund for retirees. "This is not good government. It is an act of willful neglect."

Council member Ron Heckman said he agreed with many of the points made by Zrinski as well as Council member Ken Kraft's warning the previous day that doubling the rainy-day fund would make a tax hike necessary. He agreed that "10% is a bit of a reach," and proposed increasing it to a more manageable 7%. His suggestion failed. Only Council members Vargo Heffner, Giovanni and Corpora agreed with him. The remaining members present (Kraft, Keegan, Corpora and Brown) voted No. 

John Brown argued that the rainy-day fund needs to be doubled as a matter of fiscal responsibility. "I believe we'd be having a very different conversation today if the state budget had not passed," he observed. Just two weeks before, he noted that 170 county employees were in danger of being furloughed. He did agree that NorCo finances are in dire straits, and predicted that in mid-January, the county will have to take $10-15 million from the general fund for Gracedale to cover a deficit. 

Heckman, like Kraft the day before, said there would need to be a tax hike to find the money. Keegan pointedly asked Brown if he'd support a tax hike to double the rainy-day fund. He said No, but provided no suggestions about where the county could find the money. 

Vargo Heffner proposed changing the effective date of the new rainy-day fund until 2028, but that measure died for lack of a second.  

She then warned, "We're going to have to raise taxes anyway. It's coming. Just plan on it." 

So ends the attempt to beef up the county's rainy-day fund. 

Should NorCo Council Double Its Rainy-Day Fund Even If It Means Tax Hike?

Over the past year, NorCo has watched the money well run dangerously low.  On the federal level, there was a record-setting shutdown because Democratic senators refused to go along with a continuing resolution to keep the government going with a continuing resolution. There was similar gridlock from the state, which was unable to adopt a budget until very recently. In the absence of federal and state funding, important human services administered through the county were in serious danger of interruption. Had the crisis continued, there is little doubt that the county would be forced to use its rainy-day fund. But is it set high enough? Executive Lamont McClure has proposed $8.6 million in next year's budget for what is more technically known as its stabilization fund. That is slightly more than the 5% of the year's expected total spending and this complies with current county law. But NorCo County Council is poised to vote tonight on a new ordinance that would require 10% of a year's expenditures to be kept in reserve.  The only way that money could be spent would be with the approval of County Council. 

This ordinance is set to take effect at the beginning of 2027. It will basically force incoming Exec Tara Zrinski to seek a tax hike to garner the funds needed for this surplus. Is this a good or bad idea? This is a subject that was discussed at a Council committee meeting last night. 

Though the ordinance is sponsored by Council members John Brown and Jeff Corpora, it was President Lori Vargo Heffner who took ownership last night. "I'm the one who initiated this," she said, explaining that the convergence of the federal and state shutdown made her think an increase is necessary because there is "no wiggle room" at 5%. "If something like this happens again, we're in trouble. We don't have money." 

Council member Ken Kraft opposed the idea. He agreed that the combined shutdown and budget impasse put the county "in a pickle," but that the only way to increase that rainy day fund in 2027 would be to propose a tax hike next year, and this would be unfair to incoming Exec Zrinski. Council member Kelly Keegan likened the situation to moving out of a house and shacking the new owner "with a hideous color of pink."

Council member John Brown explained that the rainy-day fund was much higher but was reduced by $11.8 million in last year's budget. He said the fund was used to balance the budget instead of being kept in reserve for emergencies. Brown tried to restore the funding in last year's budget, but his efforts failed because his proposals would have thrown the budget out of balance. "That's what led us to where we are today," he concluded.

Kraft countered that what McClure (and County Council) did was still in compliance with county law because the rainy-day fund was still higher than the required minimum. "I understand what you're trying to do by tying [Zrinski's] hands, but I don't really want to do that at this point to a new administration." 

There is speculation among some that this is actually a mean-spirited effort to force Zrinski to raise taxes during her first year in office. The counter argument is that a larger reserve is really necessary. Aside from emergencies like those faced this year, the county is going to have to pay more if it wants to keep good employees, keep the retirement fund fluid and continue paying health benefits. 

If the Council members who support this increase have no political motives, then I'd suggest that they also pledge to increase the tax rate to enable incoming Exec Zrinski to do their biddibg. Let the political faoout, if any, be on them and not on her.