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| Jay Finnigan addresses NorCo Council |
Northampton County's Gaming Board was established to award grants of tax revenue collected from the slot machines at Sands Casino. Priority had to be given to the five municipalities bordering Bethlehem, along with Bethlehem itself. But the law was changed recently. Now the slots taxes are going into a dark hole known as the Commonwealth Finance Authority. Grants will be awarded the old fashioned way to those who are politically connected, as opposed to those who can show a need.
Though it is no longer being funded, several Gaming Board members and other local officials were at last night's Council meeting, not quite ready to go gentle into that good night.
Reason? $1,255,000. Northampton County would like that money, and Council introduced an ordinance to seek a court order abolishing the Gaming Board. but the Gaming Board thinks it should continue to award the remaining funds to municipalities.
Gaming Board Chair Jay Finnigan, in an email to local officials, asserts that his Board still has the authority to dole out what's left in the till. "If you just took the remaining funds and split it between each municipality evenly, the distribution would be approximately $31,000," he writes. "This would also allow the authority to pay all its professional obligations, and then dissolve once we fulfilled our legal requirements."
Finigan led a small procession of local officials at last night's Council meeting. Tom Nolan,a Bethlehem Twp Comm'r, told Council that he opposes the ordinance. So does Lower Nazareth's new Township Manager, Lori Stauffer. Hanover Township Supervisor Michael Prendeville emailed Council,and urged them to vote No. "[T]he mere optics of a 'smash and grab' will not bode well for the Council," he argues.
But McClure has a different interpretation of the new state law. "The state has ... empowered us to keep whatever is not committed," he told Council. "This is not a mere money grab to fill a budgetary gap." He said the money could be used the salary and benefits of staff within the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). It could also help fund the Regional Crime Center, located in Allentown. "It is not good government to have an authority continue to grant money when it is about to be abolished," he concluded.
Peg Ferraro said that, in her opinion, the gaming authority should disburse the remaining funds. "It is not appropriate for the County to take money, give it to DCED or any other department to disburse," she argued. "I think we have to exercise some patience and think about this over the next two weeks." She said that when the dollars are gone, the Board could be abolished.
Council is scheduled to vote on the ordinance on April 19.
Good for the county. The money grab bag ended up as just that.
ReplyDeleteIf they had doled it out evenly from their inception they might not have been required to disband.
ReplyDelete@4:46,
ReplyDeleteYou obviously don't have a clue on how this revenue is doled out. This is likely revenue that was due before the gaming law change. The Commission would have been required to disband, regardless, had the funds already been dispersed. The county has no business in trying to seize this.
Mr. McClure ought to be reminded that Mr.Finnegan led the efforts in fighting the NIZ. How much is McClure and council willing to spend in court and in the court of public opinion?
ReplyDeleteIt's the County's money, so take it! It is about time the County uses it for its needs, not license plate checkers in some small municipality. For years most municipalities used this for non-essential public safety equipment, that was a luxury that they would not purchase, all in the name of casino impact use. I have yet to see verifiable numbers on casino impact. This was a joke from the start!
ReplyDeleteThe local share has always been a gerrymandered benefit that decides benefactors based on municipal and county borders. While there were good intention, the fact remains that a community 35 miles from Mount Airy could get Monroe County money for non impact projects but a community 5 miles from the sands could not get gaming grant because they were in Lehigh County in not contiguous to the city of Bethlehem. I always sell that Northampton County made a good faith effort in the distribution their local share. Today, the CFA has distributed over $8M of Monroe County money to municipalities in all four corners of Northhampton County.
ReplyDelete@6:43,
ReplyDeleteWhat criteria did you use to determine that non-essential public safety equipment was purchased? Isn't that actually an oxymoron? Would you rather see it go to somewhere in Monroe, Carbon, or Bucks county? Well, that is where is can now go.
@7:03,
ReplyDeleteYou tout the fact that Monroe $$ has gone to all 4 corners of Northampton county. What do you say to Sands $$ going to Monroe towns? The change in the law won't make it any better for us in the LV.
@6:43,
ReplyDeleteWould you rather your real estate taxes rise to pay for license plate readers? Since the rocket scientists in Harrisburg eliminated stickers from our license plates to save a mere $3 million, the only ways to enforce registration laws is to buy a reader at $18k, or pull everyone over. At $18k a piece, that 3 million doesn't go very far.
@6:37 Mr. Finnegan lost those lawsuits and is a big hockey fan. I have seen him enjoying a game or two at the PPL Center! He even has one the Norris McLaughlin boys working on behalf of the gaming authority. If council disbands them they Finnegan better be willing to fork over the legal fees himself!
ReplyDeleteYou better check your facts.
Delete@6:37 you are incorrect. The Townships won the NIZ suit. The way the law was originally written, Earned Income Taxes that normally go to the municipality the employee lives in, would have went to Allentown for employees working in the NIZ. The Municipalities did prevail and the lawmakers rewrote the law to divert the State Income Tax to the NIZ for employees working in the NIZ. If I recall, Hanover Twp was one of the first municipalities to start the suit, but I'm not so sure it was Finnigan's brainchild.
ReplyDelete844. I am not sure Sands share went to Monroe. It is unfortunate that the Counties lost local control. Some municipalities became addicted to the local share and some officials enabled their that addiction. It was a simple fix by allowing others to play a hand or pick up a chip that fell on the floor. Rolling the dice and hoping for a better outcome became a losing hand. Ultimately, they laid their chips down, drew one more card and busted their black Jack hand. Make no mistake, some were good at the poker face. I am thankful the Cities get to keep their defined benefit.
ReplyDelete@12:56,
ReplyDeleteThe Northampton Gaming Board was the only one in the state. At the beginning of casino gambling, counties were given the option of forming their own commissions. None did except Northampton. Now that the law has changed, all revenue will be distributed by the state. This will allow municipalities in Lehigh, Bucks, Monroe, and Carbon to apply for Sands $$. So, the local gravy train has been derailed, and anyone and their uncle can put out their hand for a piece of the action.
"most municipalities used this for non-essential public safety equipment,"
ReplyDeleteWoah! I covered the gaming board for years. You can say the Gaming Board's time has come and gone. But the argument that the board only spent this on frills is utter nonsense. Ask Bethlehem how many ambulances were refitted over the years, so they could do standby at Sands. Ask Freemansburg how their traffic changed as a result of the casino,and the very direct impact it had on services.
You can fault the gaming law for giving priority to the border municipalities. You can fault the law for failing to be more clear about impact grants. You can fault the law for the inherent unfairness of stacking the deck in favor of border municipalities. But over the years, aboard members tried their best to be as fair as they could with the grants. The board did include 3 members who were NOT from the border communities.
Now, instead of seeing local officials make these decisions, the money will sit in Harrisburg, where grants will be determined based on which political party is in power. This is going to hurt many local communities.
Over $140M in local gaming share has been dispersed across the LV. It is unfortunate Lehigh County's 4th largest police department could not be granted one single award. Northampton County Gaming Control Board did a commendable job.
ReplyDelete3:15, you are wrong, Lehigh county was given money every year, so was the city of Easton and allentown
ReplyDelete"Northampton County Gaming Control Board did a commendable job."
ReplyDeleteI agree. Given the inherent unfairness in the state law, the Board did an excellent job with the county ordinance that McClure should rightly be proud of drafting. He put a lot of work into that effort. I never knew until Thursday night that he had been worried it might be challenged. Instead of rattling sabers, the best interests of the county and municipalities are served by sitting down and talking. Regardless whether it is going into county or municipal coffers, it is going to benefit county residents. To me, the best solution would entail setting aside a portion of the money to pay DCED staff to assure compliance with grants that are outstanding, with the rest of the money going to fund operations at the regional crime center. I would not seek a municipal match the first year.
If Northampton County had not agreed to share money with Lehigh County there would have been more money to begin with. That was a Stoffa blunder by signing away all that money. The casino was coming to Bethlehem and everyone in power knew it, they coned him. As to the Board it should have just been the municipalities around Bethlehem. Instead it grew into a county wide grab bag. Budgets be damned, every new flashing light police and fire toy available was purchased. Things were approved that stretched ones credibility.
ReplyDeleteMunicipal leader egos are fragile and Finnegan's is one of the most fragile. These guys love to buy things without raising taxes. Well the golden goose is now dead. Time to smell the coffee and live in the real world.
Nothing is gained by these petty personal attacks. They diminish you and the county
ReplyDeleteDid you see the Morning Call article on the county bridges. McClure said they are a mess and the GPA is violating the local labor law.
ReplyDeleteBernie, do these people that have these feel good jobs cut into the bottom line for the community as a whole. In most cases that I have seen lately they take more than they give anyway!
ReplyDelete4:57, I did not see the story yet (sorry, Tom) but will be writing about it next week
ReplyDelete5:15, those who serve on the gaming board are unpaid volunteers
ReplyDeleteLook on the bright side, Bethelehem gets to keep all its gaming money and also guaranteed an addtional $250k/year for 20 years for Artsquest from the gaming expansion. Just waiting for the next state program to dip into.
ReplyDelete7:20, any facts to back up your anonymous accusation, or is it just nonsense?
ReplyDeleteArent they going to lose this money anyway? Not lose it, but isnt it going to be distributed by DCED? I thought I ready that there was a court case that found that the counties were no longer going to receive this money to distribute anyway ad its was going to be distributed by the state?
ReplyDeleteDisbanding is premature. This Board has done a good job in administering the money. Jay has done a terrific job;let them finish.
ReplyDelete@9:02
ReplyDeleteNo additional money coming their way. It's the remaining $1.2MM still in their coffers they want to dole out.