By an 8 to 1 vote, Northampton County Council has approved $720,500 in table games grants. They are part of Executive John Brown's Community Investment Partnership Program (CIPP), which he first announced in January. The plan is to use table games revenue from the Sands Casino for a variety of grants and revolving loans, with an emphasis on aging boroughs and townships. By August, there were 43 grant applications, which were rated by a committee comprised of county bureaucrats, LVPC and Council member Scott Parsons. Those were whittled down to 22 projects, including four facade plans, a stormwater study for Bethlehem Ttownship and Freemansburg, as well as a regional animal control officer in the slate belt.
Most of Council's discussion focused on whether to vote for this individually or as a block. Lamont McClure said there were a few grants he opposed. Hayden Phillips said he opposed one. Bt Council, which has discssed these grants at several meetings, decided to vote them up or down as a block. McClure voted Yes and Phillips ended up beingthe sole No, because of opposition to one project.
The grants are listed below.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
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Friday, November 20, 2015
9 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
You neglected to mention that when the census goes up revenue does but your expenses go up as well (staffing etc.) Damned if you do damned if you don`t.
ReplyDeleteWhile one can understand redirecting this tax money to local government for the cause of promoting civic projects, not sure about the organizational donations.
ReplyDelete“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” — James Madison, 4 Annals of Congress 179, 1794
Unbelievable that the county is handing over $10,000 to the City of Easton to do landlord training of West Ward landlords. Here is some free advice for them, do criminal history checks, employment checks and get references and then follow up with them. $10,000 may seem like chump change but this is ridiculous. $10,000 could be better utilized. Wonder who sneaked this request in but the main question too is how on earth did this get approved. Wouldn't mind having that $10,000 go to a youth program specifically in the West Ward. Another example of county waste.
ReplyDeleteLet me see if I have this right, you let your property rundown, the property owners on either side of you and across the street spend their own money to keep their properties looking nice, then city applies for grant money and gives it to you to fix up your property. In what world would the other property owners think this is fair.
ReplyDeleteIt's who you know not what you need, if you look at the history of the communities receive these grants it's the same ones no matter what category (impact, uncommitted, table games) or name they give to the grants applications. Column A communities that get grants multiple times, you'll see the names over and over, column B communities that never get anything.
ReplyDeleteMost of these projects are worthwhile. There are some that lead to questions. Why the 50k to the Hispanic Center for an elevator in the Fowler Center? Isn't that NCC property? Why does a street sweeping recycling study cost more than a study for the Bath Municipal Building? Sullivan Trail streetscape? It's still a rural road for goodness' sake!
ReplyDeleteThat might be the whole point NortHampton County giving itself casino grant money, I thought this money was for older communities, other then the county itself the cities and The municipalities that always get The impact and uncommitted grant money. Greed is good.
ReplyDeleteGovt in all its glory.
ReplyDeleteA complete waste of cash. 10 grand to do land lord training? Who pushed that through and why. I would love to see which politician suggested this and every other item on this list .
Is there a way to find out who made the initial proposal for the cash to flow to every single entity on the list. Where is this info made available. My guess, you can not and will not, ever find out who pushed for the money train and why. Was the public allowed to sit in on the meetings to find out this info.
If we would know this, we would also be able to follow the money train right into the campaigns of the same people who made these suggestions.
6:05 AM used a famous quote and it is so appropriate for this scam and just about every other scam when it comes to handing out cash or WAM money.. Nice job.
“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” — James Madison, 4 Annals of Congress 179, 1794
This money was supposed to go the smaller older communities, can you imagine landlords sitting at a meeting being told how to rent their property's. Browns original statement was the Grant money was going to community other than Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. Next money also going to Easton for the farmers market, how many people start their own businesses with their own money. If you opened a business in Easton asked for some of that money.
ReplyDelete