Allentown Watchdog Lou Hershman is beaten, but unbowed. He continues to take an interest in city government, attending meetings and always asking for information.He's discovered that Allentown's General Fund Balance, as of the end of 2009, was a negative $3,251,487. The City has dipped into its Earned Income Tax Escrow Fund to keep afloat until real estate tax revenues start trickling in, which should be sometime next month.
18 comments:
Allentown needs to learn from the new Administration in the City of Easton. Deficits left by the previous administration have been eliminated and there was a surplus in 2008 and they say possibly in 2009 also. And no tax increases this year. Hooray!
Loopy Lou had his chance to convince voters about Pawlowski in both the Spring and the Fall, and he was twice soundly defeated. By ignoring the will of the citizens of Allentown and continuing to publish these spurious attacks, Loopy Lou demeans only himself and this blog's six or seven readers.
he is right but he is the wrong messenger. at this point he is no longer even given a serious audience. that's earned too after all his years of writing memos and acting as a general pest.
"By ignoring the will of the citizens of Allentown and continuing to publish these spurious attacks"
Um, this is no spurious attack. It is a factul report. The balance it is what it is. Only in Allentown could that be viewed as an attack.
O'Hare is censoring criticism again. What he can cover up with vicious lies and attacks, he deletes.
CUCKOO!
Bernie,
Are you saying that Hershman is the one who actually discovered the $3 M deficit and not the city controller?
Loopy Lou demeans only himself and this blog's six or seven readers.
Boy are you wrong! Bernie's blog is the most visited in the Valley.
Jealous?
"Are you saying that Hershman is the one who actually discovered the $3 M deficit and not the city controller?"
Not at all. I am merely passing along information that Lou obtained from the city, showing a negative cash balance for the city at the beginning of the year.
Bsically, the city is overdrawn. I thought some of you might like to know that. Hence, my post.
The figures are what they are, but for some reason, Hershman is targeted for merely passing this along.
Anon 10:20pm,
What evidence do you have of that? You demean only yourself by writing things that have no factual basis.
Anon 10:20am,
What evidence do you have of that? You demean only yourself by writing things that have no factual basis.
Are we counting all of the aliases Sandra Walters Weiss has used in her countless criminal enterprises? If so, Bernie's got hundreds of readers!
Anon 10:20,
Thanks for the nice words. I believe Kathy Frederick's humor blog. Junk Drawer, is the most popular in the LV. Alexa rates her at #35,920 worldwide. My blog comes in much lower, at #423,039. Lately, there are about 1400 unique visitors on weekdays.
Greetings:
May I make something clear?
Mr. Hershman did not "discover" this. The report just came out and all councilors and the controller know (and anticipated) about the cash balance, which is tied to the criticism I have already made about the annual cash accounting deficit reported two weeks ago.
At the second council meeting of January, the Budget and Finance Committee strongly voiced concern about the 2009 results and the potential problems for 2010. We also voiced concern with the way the administration characterized 2009 results.
The December and preliminary annual results for 2009 are on the Budget and Finance Committee agenda for tomorrow evening, which by the way is a regularly scheduled meeting on the 4th Wed of each month. It is because of those monthly meetings that council has been able to push for more timely information from the administration. All councilors have been invited to participate in the committee meeting because of the gravity of the situation. I urge citizens to attend.
I understand the meeting will be covered by the newspaper.
Thank you,
Michael Donovan
Michael,
Lou never claimed to have "discovered" this. He told me last night that this info is well-known in the city and has a memo about it. In fact, he told me this in passing, and I was the one who decided this merited a post.
The point of my post is to pass that information along. When the city has a negative cash balance, people have a right to know.
It's George Bush's fault.
Allentown Democrat Voter
Hello Bernie, and thank you for responding.
I appreciate your clarifying the word "discovered." There are some of us within city hall that are trying to improve the quality of information that is being provided to the public.
For a variety of what I think are good reasons, I do not publish numbers on my blog until they are brought out in regularly schedule city meetings. I think that is the fair thing to do for my colleagues.
We will continue to be diligent at attempting to right the ship.
Best regards,
Michael
I see I did use the word "discovered," so appears that this is my own poor choice of words. Lou is obviously in no position to make that discovery, and was merely passing along information that he had received. I believe the people have a right to know when their city has a negative cash balance, and the sooner the better.
"Attempt"
Key word in that sentence.
Besides, it's not what the politicians SAY, it's what they DO!
Like voting to bulldoze Cedar Beach for a super-duper Multi-Generational Destination Playground.
- Lifetime Pawlowski Supporter
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