LC Exec Don Cunningham: Annual State of the County Address

Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham gave his "State of the County" address today in Center Valley. Here's the complete address.

It is appropriate that we pause at least once a year to put a larger framework around the day to day, to reflect and to think about the community that we are and the community we hope to be.

We’ve been blessed in Lehigh County and the Lehigh Valley. Through our 196 years as a county and even more than that as a settled region, we have been given great assets – the natural resources of rivers and streams, fertile soil for farms, coal, iron ore, limestone, slate and shale for the development of great industries and a beautiful valley nestled between the protective cover of two mountains. To these assets flocked a group of diverse people from across the globe, all armed with a strong work ethic, a will to survive and to prosper and the desire to create a better life for themselves and their children.

We are all either the descendants of those people or we are the new immigrants, or transplants, who have come to this Valley from somewhere else to seek those same things: opportunity, community, security and happiness. These are the essential elements of any democratic, free society. And, they should be the foundation upon which we build our plans.

For today, we offer a State of the County – not a state of Lehigh County government. The state of Lehigh County, and the Lehigh Valley, is strong. It is all of our jobs, collectively, to keep it that way.

The plans and ideas that we offer in government should represent a cohesive blueprint that reflects the focus of all our community, the private sector, the academic, the non-profit and the neighborhoods. For, there are very few problems that government can solve on its own but there are even fewer that can’t be solved when all the forces of a free society are involved.

In Lehigh County we keep a simple focus. It’s a three point plan: 1) fiscal responsibility, 2) positive growth and development, and 3) improving quality of life. We aim to achieve this plan through a vigorous focus on planning and working regionally, driving cooperation across municipal boundaries, county boundaries and between the public and private sectors.

Today, that’s more important than ever. We are a rapidly changing Lehigh Valley. We are Pennsylvania’s fastest growing region – the state’s third largest metropolitan area. We created jobs last year at a pace faster than any other region in Pennsylvania – and, at a pace 2.2 percent more than the year before. The rest of the state added jobs at just half that rate, or 1.1 percent.

During the past five years, 27,000 jobs have been added. The Lehigh Valley has not seen this kind of rapid and sustained population and job growth since the Industrial Revolution and the height of American immigration. The average rate of unemployment for last year was 4.2 percent. In fact, December of 2007 marked the 33rd straight month of unemployment below 5 percent in the Lehigh Valley. Most economists consider full employment below five percent.

To fuel that growth we’ve lost farmlands at an alarming rate. The Planning Commission projects that this pace will result in more than half of the Lehigh Valley becoming urban by 2030. About four to five square miles of previously undeveloped land is developed each year.

And, we’ve seen the effects of commuters living here and drawing higher wages in New Jersey, New York or Philadelphia. Housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years leading to a Lehigh Valley inflation rate of 6.5 percent last year. The national rate for the same period was 2.8 percent. That translates to workers needing raises of 6.5 percent to avoid becoming poorer as prices rise on everything from food, shelter, heating and gasoline.

All of this makes this a historic time of change for the Lehigh Valley. And, a critical time for all of us to think long-term about the Lehigh Valley we have been, who we are and what we want to become. If we wish to keep our identity, our strong sense of community and our quality of life, we need to act accordingly today.

The first thing we need to do in county government is to deliver high quality services at a good price. With the inflationary pressures on our residents and our businesses, it’s imperative that we keep the cost of government in check and provide stable tax rates. Good tax policy comes from good spending policy. If you control spending, in most cases, tax rates will take care of themselves and remain stable.

That’s why we’ve held spending increases in our general fund budget to an average of only three percent a year over two years, well below the area’s rate of inflation. And, that’s why for three years now there’s been tax stability, not tax increases. And, we project that we can maintain our tax rate of 10.25 mills until 2011 as part of our five year financial plan. Again, this is even more important at a time when so many other costs are rising.

At the same time, we’ve increased our cash reserves up to $20 million, a growth of $1.5 million from last year. And, under the watchful and experienced eyes of Tom Muller, our Director of Administration, and Brian Kahler, our Budget Director, we will continue to keep costs down and pay attention to the little things to avoid big problems. In order to keep our tax rate level into the next decade, however, we have to resist the urge to either spend away or rebate away those reserves. It’s critical that ample reserves be maintained to weather any uncertain times that may lie ahead. There is no wise and frugal family in Lehigh County that would spend its life savings and keep nothing on hand for lean times.

We have kept our taxes down by finding ways to reduce expenses. We started by cutting more than $20 million from the cost of the proposed Lehigh County Courthouse renovation and expansion project, while not reducing the amount of new space. We then partnered with our workforce and union leaders and have saved $8.5 million on health care costs in 2007 and 2008. This year, we cut $267,000 on property and casualty insurance while improving coverage through competition. We’ve used internet auctions and other aggressive techniques to bid professional services contracts and to use competition to wring out excess cost.

Last year, we implemented a two-year military tax rebate. Any member of the United States armed forces called to serve military operations for six months or more is eligible for a full rebate of the 2007 and 2008 county property taxes on their home. In addition, last year we began an installment plan that lets Lehigh County residents for the first time pay their taxes in three installments, easing the burden of a large one-time payment.

The improved fiscal condition of Lehigh County was recognized last year when Moody’s bond rating service, in the face of a spiraling credit crisis in the nation, upgraded our bond rating to Double A-2, recognizing continually-improving fiscal management.

Putting our fiscal house in order allows us to attack what I believe are the critical needs and challenges of our county. They are three areas: 1) fixing what’s broken, 2) making our streets safe, and 3) maintaining our quality of life.

I don’t have time today to address them all so I will focus on some new proposals to help keep our streets safe. There is no greater purpose of government than to provide a safe community. Public safety or, at the national level, national security, is the primary function of any government. If you can’t maintain a safe community little else matters. Public safety has long been the exclusive responsibility of local and state government in Pennsylvania. For the most part, counties are responsible for the crime, and the criminals, after it occurs. The district attorney needs to prosecute, the public defenders provide for the right of adequate defense, the courts need to adjudicate and punish and many others work in the area of parole, probation, incarceration, rehabilitation and work release.

In fact, about 65 cents of every Lehigh County tax dollar is spent on the back end of crime. It is by far the biggest cost in our budget, amounting to $1.1 million a week or $60 million a year. And, again, with the exceptions of some of the District Attorney’s work, it all goes to handling the crime and the criminal after it occurs. That simply doesn’t make sense.

We have a problem with crime in this county. And, yes, it’s based in Allentown, but it is the problem of everyone in this county and this valley. There are city streets that only a generation ago served as the retail and community center of this entire region where, today, many are afraid to go. We have street gangs and punk criminals owning the very neighborhoods that not long ago were home to hard-working, law-abiding residents who swept their sidewalks every morning. It’s not a question of being scared; we need to be mad. It doesn’t matter if it’s not your city; those criminals have stolen a part of our Valley, a part of our county seat, our largest and, once, greatest city. And, of course, crime knows no boundaries. The foothold may be in a neighborhood in Allentown, but the crime will go where the market is – to Whitehall, Salisbury, Fountain Hill and West Bethlehem. Allentown must be returned to its past glory and the only way that will happen in full is if the streets are safer once again.

So, today, I propose a Safe Streets Initiative that will bring the full county government more in to the fight with our District Attorney and the local police. And it begins with making money available to put community police on the streets of the county where they are most needed.

Under this proposal, Lehigh County will provide 50 percent of the cost of a designated community police officer for three years. That officer would have to be assigned to a neighborhood or downtown substation and patrol using a bicycle or on foot. At least half of the officer’s shifts would need to be worked in the 3 to 11 pm timeframe. The officer could not be assigned to general patrol duty or given a patrol car.

County governments have not done this before. But, we have the resources and our cities and towns need our help. I will ask the Commissioners to set aside at least $1 million in a special public safety fund to be dispensed during a three-year period. The $1 million should allow for the hiring of 7 to 10 community police officers. The grants would be competitive. Application would be voluntary by municipality but application would require the submission of a community policing plan for a particular neighborhood or downtown. Preference would be given to municipalities with downtown-type retail districts and to areas showing a greater need to combat crime based upon crime data.

Community policing works. It worked in New York City in the 1990s and in Bethlehem in 2000. The presence of a cadre of community police officers on bicycles and foot patrol will do more than another office building to bring people back downtown and to feel safe in all areas of our county. And, there’s no better way we can help our cities and towns than to give them the resources to put community police on the streets.

In addition, we will continue to partner with District Attorney Jim Martin and our police chiefs from the 17 police departments and, hopefully, the police departments in Northampton County to create a Regional Crime Data Center. It would be the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.

The feasibility study commissioned by both counties last year is complete and with the commitment of the counties to provide operational funding we can proceed this year. Lehigh County we will make that commitment. We can’t afford not to.

This center would functionally consolidate all of the police operations and crime data in the Lehigh Valley. This will allow us to overcome the problems of so many local governments in fighting the bad guys. Any incident report or information on a perpetrator or a crime would instantly flow from the various police departments into one central repository where county crime analysts would help local police departments identify patterns, solve crime and take criminals off our streets. After a while, the criminals will get the message: the Lehigh Valley is not a good place for the crime business.

This regional crime fighting concept would build on the central booking operation that DA Jim Martin put into operation this year with $250,000 in support from the county. All bookings in Lehigh County are now handled centrally at the Lehigh County prison by county personnel, not only creating a uniformed system of booking but, more importantly, getting officers back on the street to fight crime instead of spending hours doing paperwork.

In addition, construction begins this year on an upgraded 9-1-1 Communication Center in a new location next to the Government Center. The center will have a reverse 9-1-1 system that utilizes high speed lines to contact residents and emergency responders in the event of an emergency. The center also will now have complete GPS tracking of emergency calls from cell phones.

Finally, this year, we are embarking on a long overdue project to rebuild and expand the Men’s Corrections Center in Salisbury Township, while implementing a new re-entry management program focused on rehabilitating non-violent offenders.

Those are a few of the more than $100 million in capital projects that we’re engaged in right now. When we cut $20 million from the cost of the courthouse project, we made clear it was because the county had long-ignored capital needs beyond just one building that was left to leak for 40 years.

We have put more than $10 million of county money into replacing and repairing closed and damaged bridges, including the Linden Street Bridge in Allentown, Lyon Valley Bridge, Klines Pedestrian Bridge, Coplay/ Northampton Bridge and three other smaller bridges.

In the area of human services, which constitutes half of our budget, we are developing the Lehigh Valley Autism Resource Community Hub, or ARCH, a first of its kind one-stop shopping for services for the parents of children with autism, along with a “Safe House” for the Children and Youth office, which will provide a home-like environment for children who are awaiting placement.

In the area of quality of life, we are just completing the Lehigh County owned Coca Cola Park baseball stadium. Next month, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs will take the field for the first time ever in an exhibition game with the Philadelphia Phillies, soon followed by opening day in April.

A complete resurfacing of the track at our world class Velodrome also will be completed in time for race season 2008.

And, engineering, design and development continue on the nearly $3 million project to open up new passive nature trails at the Trexler Nature Preserve park development project and open up greater use of those 1,100 acres.

And, as the Lehigh Valley grows, it’s imperative that we act now to preserve farmland and open space across Lehigh County. We’ve done that at a record setting pace. Lehigh County has preserved 220 farms, covering 18,010 acres. Last year, we added an additional 1,429 preserved acres. Lehigh County now ranks third in the state in number of farms preserved. Only Lancaster and Berks counties have preserved more.

This year’s budget shifts $12 million from reserve funds to our Green Futures program in order to move quickly and take advantage of opportunities before they disappear.

In conclusion, I believe the best role of elected leadership is to put forward an agenda and a blueprint that focuses on ensuring that our future is even brighter than our past. Hopefully, there is concurrence around that agenda. For democratic government, if run correctly, is merely a reflection, or a representation, of the needs, challenges and priorities of the people and organizations of a community during a period of time.

For, we need to realize that government cannot solve every problem nor should it try -- we have not the resources, nor the ability to do that. Therefore, as with any entity that has limited resources, it’s imperative that we bring discipline, focus and prioritization to what we do. And, our focus should be to create opportunity, community, security and, ultimately, happiness.

We are living through a period of tremendous change in our county and the Lehigh Valley. Our business and private leaders, along with our elected leaders, have served us well in the last decades as the Lehigh Valley economy has transitioned from manufacturing to that of a new economy. We’ve created regional organizations to develop our economy and grow our businesses and promote our area. That work must be continued. And, there is more work – new work – now, that needs to be done

Thank you for what you continue to do to make Lehigh County and the Lehigh Valley a unique and special place to live.