John Brown's $2.375 Million Slush Fund

Northampton County Executive John Brown has a $2.375 million slush fund. County Council unwittingly created it when they approved last year's Budget. Unless they take steps to assert some kind of control, he has carte blanche to hand out Walking Around Money, at his own discretion, in the name of economic or community development. It's already started. Let me tell you how this happened.

Naturally, it all starts with gambling. Northampton County's Gaming Authority is designed to prevent hanky panky. It's set up primarily to award grants based on both the negative and positive impact of the Bethlehem Sands Casino, with priority given to the five municipalities surrounding Bethlehem  Most of the money has gone to public safety. You might disagree with a decision here or there, but nine members are making the call in a transparent setting. All of their decisions are made publicly.

Here's the problem. The Gaming Authority has control over only some of the money coming from the casino. It doles out the slots tax revenue. Though that figure is projected to be about $1.6 million this year, there's another gambling stream over which it has no say. That's the table games revenue, which is supposed to be dedicated to community and economic development projects.

It's a healthy chunk of change. Northampton County has budgeted $1 million in anticipated revenue from table games this year, although it will likely be much more. The County is also sitting on $1.375 million in unspent table games revenue. This is a total of $2.375 million.

Where will that money go?

When he was Executive, John Stoffa had pretty much decided that this fund should go to community and economic developments in the smaller communities. But he was unwilling to spend it just because he had it. This explains how the County ended up sitting on $1.375 million in table games revenue.

In his proposed 2014 Budget, Stoffa wanted $400,000 of this table games revenue to go for a job creation grant under the control of the Industrial Development Authority, an independent source of tax-exempt funding for local businesses.

But Council killed that idea. It hated the idea of some outside agency having control of the money. Then Council President John Cusick argued that keeping the money away from the Industrial Development Authority would give Council "considerably more discretion" over how it was spent. Lamont McClure agreed that this must be "in the budget." But paradoxically, by a vote of 7-2, these rocket scientists managed to do the opposite. They created a $2.375 million slush fund for "future grants" by the Executive. In an effort to avoid a slush fund, Council created one.

I never noticed this myself.  I'm an idiot, too. Clearly, their intention was to retain control, but they certainly appear to have handed it over to John Brown.

Only Peg Ferraro and Scott Parsons voted against this dumb idea, as most ideas cooked up during six-hour meetings tend to be.

The Budget approved last year tells us that $3.375 million will be awarded in "future grants", with no additional explanation or breakdown. This opens the door for Brown to pencil in whatever he wants, so long as he claims it is for community or economic development.

He's started.

Now if it were me, I'm immediately schedule a fact-finding mission to Aruba. But Brown is a frickin' Republican, so he's trying to be responsible. No community development junkets to Hawaii forhim. Maybe Notre Dame will have a leadership conference. .

According to The Express Times, Brown is giving Easton $42,000 for a used trolley to cart people all over the place at no cost.  Mayor Sal Panto, whose #1 goal in Easton has been to increase the workforce, thinks this is a great idea. I agree, even though it likely comes from voices behind the throne, whispering into Brown's ear.

Easton already is taking a pretty big bite out of Northampton County. In addition to the commuter tax, the County is paying for the following Easton projects this year: Farmer's Market - $10,000; Greater Easton Development Partnership - $20,000; Historical Society (on Northampton Street) - $40,000; National Canal Museum - $12,000; Nurture Nature Center (Easton) - $10,000; and State Theatre - $42,000.

Because Easton is struggling and has such a high density of low income residents, I believe the trolley is still a very good idea.

But Council members only found out about this after reading the news account. Brown never told them.

Now Council knows. They also know they accidentally created a slush fund. They need to do everything they can to ensure they have the final say in how this money is spent, or that some sort of objective set of criteria is established that will prevent one person from buying good will at election time with the people's money.

His next idea might not be so good.

Blogger's Note: The Express Times states the money for this project is coming from the Gaming Authority. That is inaccurate. The Gaming Authority has approved no such grant, and has no authority to do so.