I learned and reported about the tax hike last week. Council member Julio Guridy confirmed that there will be one, but was unsure just how high it would be.
The reason this tax hike is being kept under wraps is because it might hurt incumbents Jeff Glazier and Mary Ellen Koval, both of whom are running for re-election to City Council and Controller.
Last week's Budget and Finance Committee was suddenly canceled by Chairman Glazier. He never returned my call asking why, and asking about the tax hike.
My fear is that the citizens of Allentown will get the word on Wednesday, the day after the election, after it's too late for some of them to change their votes.
The happy fiscal reports Glazier has been giving all year have been described as Madoff Reports. Money indicated by the city Capital Report has been continuously disappearing or shifting from one department and budget item to the next, and no one has been able to pin anything in it down all year.The budget is as crooked as the administration.
ReplyDeleteA simple Google of incoming Finance Director Bent Hartzell shows that there were accusations of overestimating Detroit's budget by $13 million while he was there, which mistake threw Detroit into bankruptcy and receivership. Thus same kind of creative accounting seems to be going on in Allentown, and who knows where it will end.
Bent Hartzell from Detroit.
ReplyDeleteNow that's encouraging.
Sleepy Jeff Glaiser knows which side his bread
ReplyDeleteis buttered on.
He's disengaged from his constituents interests,
he's arrogant and a toad for the administration,
he's not stupid-----which is more than one can say for several of his colleagues.
I am holding my breath!
ReplyDeleteI predict Democrats will prevail in Allentown tomorrow. They'll also do quite well in Easton.
ReplyDeletebethlums budget will be very small this year. when you don't do anything you don't need much money
ReplyDeletePolitics 101 tells us never to announce a tax increase before an election.Why is this so shocking ?
ReplyDeleteThe quirk in the Home Rule Charter is that the Mayor is required to submit his budget to Allentown City Council, not the people. While I don't agree with that interpretation, it's what Pawlowski is using to justify his failure to put the budget out.
ReplyDeleteAssuming that he submits it to Council on time, why couldn't individual council members release the details?
Or if all members of Council don't receive the budget by (let's say) noon today, then I would hope that at least one council person would call a press conference to point it out, and let the public know what they've heard about a possible tax hike. Put Pawlowski on the defensive (and on the record) to explain why they don't have it and that the budget won't have a tax hike. Of course that would require a local newspaper to cover the press conference that isn't in league with the Mayor.
Withholding the city budget until after an election is nothing new in Pawlowski's Allentown. Unfortunately, so is hearing nothing about it from anyone on City Council.
"Politics 101 tells us never to announce a tax increase before an election.Why is this so shocking ?"
ReplyDeleteBecause it violates the concepts of transparency and accountability in government.
>"Assuming that he submits it to Council on time, why couldn't individual council members release the details?"
ReplyDeleteAn individual Council member can do so, but there might be some reluctance to give it out before giving all other Council members a chance to see it first.
3.45% or about the size of a white man's penis.
ReplyDeleteTrust Cynthia Mota to do the right thing.
ReplyDelete'Politics 101' In Today's World Governments are striving for lack of transparency and accountability.It seems everyday someone is submitting a right to know request to get basic governments records and information. When does it stop ?
ReplyDeleteWhen government statrts being accountable and transparent.
ReplyDelete"My fear is that the citizens of Allentown will get the word on Wednesday, the day after the election, after it's too late for some of them to change their votes."
ReplyDeleteSeriously? They'll vote like sheep for the Ds, regardless of any issue. Pawlowski would win another term in a landslide if he was on tomorrow's ballot. Am I missing something here?
lol @ 8:17 am ."I predict Democrats will prevail in Allentown tomorrow. They'll also do quite well in Easton".
ReplyDeleteWow, that's really going out on a limb.
These people, who are hiding the tax hike, are the same people who jumped on the hope and change band wagon over the last 8 years. Yet for some "unknown" reason, these same people and their under informed/uninformed sheeple, keep voting in the same party and the same criminals. Nothing changes.
ReplyDeleteIf you are sick and tired of the criminals in charge of this city, then do something about it and vote for different people who are not members of the criminal mayors regime/pac.
A vote against any and all who knowingly received cash from fed eds pac and his buddies / niz zone beneficiaries, will send a message.
who knows, some of these criminals might win tomorrow, but their term will be cut short bc they will be sent to jail, AND SOME OF THEM KNOW THAT.
if you want to clean up Allentown, it starts by not voting for the criminal regime , currently in charge. this crew preys on the uninformed for their political power and pay offs. The exact same thing goes on in Reading, Philly , Pittsburgh and so on.My guess, the under informed/uninformed , have no idea this blog exists nor do they care. They only care about , what will fed ed and his band of criminals give them, as expected. Nobody votes against Santa.
The fed ed gang of criminals hates people and media who know too much , especially when a criminal investigation is being conducted by the FBI/feds.
Substituting right wing know-nothings for criminal Democrats hardly seems like a big win to this weary observer.
ReplyDeleteIt's another lose lose for Allentown.
Nobody is hiding a tax increase. It's a town run by Democrats. You get tax increases. If you're surprised by yet another tax increase, it's you have been hiding your head in the sand. This is a dog-bites-man story.
ReplyDeleteMarion Barry was videoed smoking crack. He said "the bitch set me up." He went to jail. He was returned to city council by a landslide. Pawlowsi is Allentown's Marion Barry. Even if he goes to prison, he'll have a nice soft landing when he returns to Allentown.
ReplyDelete"about the size of a white man's penis"
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what Bernie allows on his blog.
You probably posted the comment you find so offensive.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Bernie was WRONG!!! Pawlowski is not proposing a property tax increase. He instead wants to borrow $4.5 million from the Solid Waste Fund.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what Bernie allows on his blog
ReplyDeleteBernie tries to respect freedom of speech and shows wider latitude than the dailies do, but he has his limits. There are a few people who post here who are obsessed with potty humor are who are immature dolts. As Bernie pointed out - you are probably the one who posted what you allege is "amazing". Mature people just move along and leave the dolts in the dust.
Bernie sometimes leaves a post containing offensive material, because it reflects on the person who posted it far more than anyone or anything else.
6:34, Actually, I was correct. A wage tax hije is proposed.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping the council meeting on Wednesday night is packed...
ReplyDelete"Nobody is hiding a tax increase. It's a town run by Democrats. You get tax increases. If you're surprised by yet another tax increase, it's you have been hiding your head in the sand. This is a dog-bites-man story."
ReplyDeleteThen you should move to the tea party paradise of Northampton County. They elected their entire slate in 2013 and in their first year passed a 10% tax increase, That was over the objections of their tea party leader who demanded a 20% tax increase.
Yes by all means that is what we all expected from the Taxed Enough Already party.
A true workers paradise.
Raoul!