So how is that controversial bi-county health department doing?RenewLV and the LWV will host two forums next month on "the many key benefits of a regional approach to public health. Panel speakers will include members of the Lehigh Valley Board of Health and other public health leaders." While I support this in principle, I have questions about costs and uniformity of service. Will Coplay or Bangor residents receive the same services being offered in Bethlehem and Allentown?
This attempt to muster community support may be in vain. Northampton County's new Council, once installed, will likely kill a bi-county health department.
Lehigh County Community Forum: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.,
American Legion Post 426, 134 S. 2nd St.Coplay, PA
Northampton County Community Forum: Tuesday, December 8, 2009, 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., Washington Elementary School, 381 Washington Blvd (Rt. 191), Bangor, PA
You will probably have a snark for this comment. When Ron Angle asked Ron Heckman about this issue at a Council meeting that is exactly what he said. He was also concerned over the projected State revenue and cost estimates. Also the impact on existing mandated County Human Services. If we are cutting back Human Services why the Hell would we create a new expense?
ReplyDeleteThe idea that you will give services to Allentown and Bethlehem and not provide it to other residents is not politically feasible. Under the current law, Northampton and Lehigh were apparently allowed to phase in the municipalities over time.
So if you don't live in the two largest cities, even though your taxes go to pay for this, you are shit out of luck if you ask for service.
Any elected official that supports that should be thrown out of office.
Ask Angle, it was his question.
Bernie-Thanks for blogging on the health dept. It brings out the ill-informed and provides an opportunity to set the record straight. Can we please stop quoting Mr. Heckman as the regional health dept expert? At one time, he was the point person for Northampton Co, but that was almost 6 years ago, when NC was going at it alone. The numbers dramatically changed when Lehigh joined, making it an affordable approach.
ReplyDeleteThe HD will not be "phasing in the municipalites over time" as Anon 12:14 mentioned. Yes, the plan is to keep Bethlehem and Allentown at the current level of service and phase in services throughout the region over the next 3 years. This smart growth approach makes financial, organizational and human resource sense.
Throughout this transitional stage, I guarantee you that municipalities will be receiving a helluva lot more public health services than they are now.
And please don't talk to me about parity of services. Name me one county funded service where Bethlehem doesn't get more service- MH?, Drug and Alcohol? Aging? MR? C&Y?
If we had universal healthcare, this wouldnt even be needed.
ReplyDeleteI pray that the new council gets rid of this pathetic idea once and for all. Northampton County is looking for a tax increase this year and now they want to create another department. Are they completely nuts?? Hopefully the new council will put this for rest until the end of time..If they don't they should be ashamed of themselves..The state will never ever fund the whole thing. Hell they are broke and laying off people left and right. Anyone who thinks that they will fund this is completely nuts. Even if they fund it to some degree, they will come up short later on and the county will have to make up for the difference. Stop this madness already!!
ReplyDelete12:22 is right. The state is broke. Grucela can't even write cardboard checks with others' money these days. Northampton is about to punish taxpayers with a nearly double-digit tax bomb from a guy who fancies himself a fiscal watchdog. Lehigh taxpayers are getting Cunningham's time-released tax bomb next year. Stop wasting time with meetings. You can't pay for this.
ReplyDeleteSell Gracedale and throw the elderly poor in the street. Cut Human Services by over 10% but by all means create a new Health Department.
ReplyDeleteThe reason this is important is that a pandemic doesn't care if you live in Allentown or Forks Township. It doesn't make sense for each city to have its own health department. Policy decisions about health, transportation,and city planning require effective cooperation and planning at the regional level, not the city level. Regional governance is an important layer between state and city, where life is actually lived. If you live in Bethlehem or Allentown, you probably already think of the Lehigh Valley as one inter-connected organism, but there is no governance at that level. If you folded the smaller towns into a larger regional tax base for issues where it made sense to be thinking regionally, you would be able to slash administrative costs and spend more money on services. For some paranoids, this is may be the camel's nose under the tent undermining Catasauqua and Whitehall's sovereignty, and I'm pretty willing to argue for the idea that that's actually what should happen. Where does a place like Catasauqua get off having its own city council and collecting taxes? You're paying hundreds more municipal employees than you should, at great cost to efficiency. Small town governance should be folded into larger cities wherever possible, who should themselves be bound to a regional planning body on the issues where it makes sense. That's the best way to stop transactional costs from eating all the tax dollars, and to root out the small-ball corruption that pervades small town governance, and get better planning by marginalizing ignorant low-info provincial objections.
ReplyDeleteHey Jonathan if this is another backdoor way of redistributing the municipal money to city peoblemns you just put the biggest nail in the coffin of this project.
ReplyDeleteThe LV Partnership has been trying to get redistribution of tax money for decades.
All the flowery bullshit aside, that is exactly what you just advocated.