On Wednesday evening, Northampton County Council voted 8-0 to table an ordinance that would have given a 20-year tax break (known as a TIF) to the proposed redevelopment of the Dixie Cup factory in Wilson Borough.
Interestingly, Council member Jeff Warren, who previously hailed the project, was absent. During the public hearing on this tax grab a few weeks ago, he assailed Lehigh Valley developer Nat Hyman for leaving after opposing this corporate welfare during public comment. Unlike Hyman, Warren is an elected official and is paid to attend county council meetings. Warren not only missed the meeting but had time that day to publish five tweets about Philly sports. This is unlike Council members who miss meetings for medical reasons.
According to Tina Smith, NorCo's Economic Development maestro, Wilson Borough is poised to pass a resolution approving the Dixie TIF on July 8. Wilson Area School District will deliberate that day but will not be voting on it until August 12.
This means that the earliest a county public notice can be advertised is August 13. The soonest the TIF ordinance can be introduced is September 5. A public hearing would take place September 19, with a final vote on October 17.
Council member Ron Heckman noted that the county can propose a timeline, but it is up to Council to decide when it will act, so long as it complies with state law. "I know people want to move this at rocket speed," he said, "but I can tell you right now that it's moved too fast."
30 comments:
Heckman’s treatment of Smith was out of line. For a guy who’s always preaching about civility he’s acting more like Angle all the time.
I heard that Wilson Boro was going to have a public meeting to allow feedback from residents as to what they thought of the TIF Can that be verified??
Sounds like plenty of time to get all those questions answered.
Heckman is right. Now Council, stop it completely.
Developer (fake) is going to get the 29 million and let the project fail because he is not qualified, period!
What is los with tha multiple cheap shots at Warren ? You literally do not question anyone else’s attendance, ever !
Was there ever any member of Council that had a perfect attendance record? None of them ever attend all their meetings. Are you aware that Mr. McClure (when a Council Member) had the worst attendance record in the History of the Council.
"What is los with tha multiple cheap shots at Warren ? You literally do not question anyone else’s attendance, ever !"
These are not cheap shots. A council member who misses a meeting is not fulfilling his public service. I do not slam Council members who miss meetings for medical reasons, but that is where my mercy ends. In Warren's case, he really deserves being taken to task. This is the same member of council who slammed a local businessman for leaving a meeting, yet Warren is supposed to be present and was not for a meeting on the very matter for which he is a cheerleader.
Thank you for continuing to expose this outrageous scam.
The Wilson Area School Board couldn't even hire a new Superintendent given a year notice from Doug Wagner. If they approve this nonsense after that rediculous LERTA from a previous developer, here's what the voters/taxpayers need to know.
Incumbent seats up in 2025 are: Region I (Wilson Wards 1 & 2) Allyson Palinkas and Linda Baskwell. Region II (Wilson Ward 3, Glendon, West Easton, Williams Upper) Maggie Hall and Holly Waugh. Region III (Williams Middle, Eastern, & Western) Molly Sunderlin.
It only takes 10 petition signatures in late february to get on the ballot.
So no other reason is acceptable to you?
How do you know he didn’t become sick while at work or on the drive home?
What if he had a family emergency?
What if he had an appointment scheduled months ago and not able to reschedule?
What if he had a vacation scheduled over a year ago?
Or any other 1,000s of reasons?
I thought you were better at journalism than your own stupid assumptions.
Next time a commissioner needs to miss a meeting should they email you directly so you don’t post shitty comments based on your own made up guesses?
You would think there should be some sort of discipline and/or notation in a file for public officials who fail to do basic functions of a given job.
HERE WE GO AGAIN, ANOTHER ROUND OF BULLSH=T THE COUNTY EXEC AND HIS SOLICITOR AND THE WILSON BOROUGH MAYOR AND WILSON SOLICITOR IS LETTING THE DIXIE FALL THROUGH THE CRACKS JUST TO FILL THEIR POCKETS$$$$$ I GUESS MONEY TALKS$$$$$ AND THE POOR TAX PAYER SUFFERS
Are they insane? Are they insane?? Are they insane???!! They're going to give skyline scammers $29,000,000 in tax payer money Plus not make them pay back a cent for 20 years Plus They're gonna pay themselves $15,000,000 in fees Out of that $29,000,000 Plus they aren't spending a dollar to buy the property cause joey riebman is giving them an $11,000,000 mortgage plus they want $10,000,000 RCap money plus Wilson is going to give them A piece of land. What are these council people amd school board memebrs thinking about? What are they looking at??? I'm not a business person and I know this is insane!!!!
Why does that nimrod Warren think Mr. Hyman should have stayed? He said what he had to say. I'm sure he has more important things to do than listen to them discuss abortion, union contracts and all of the other bonuses that went on for four hours.
BernieOHare to 12:26, if Warren was sick or had a family emergency, he would not have posted 5 tweets about Philly sports on the day of the meeting. I am aware of McClure absences from council committees bc I am the person who pointed them out. Warren cannot attack a member of the public for leaving a meeting and then himself fail to show. That is blatant hypocrisy and I rightly pointed it out.
Based upon your reporting BO my understanding is that Nat Hyman told council that he would write Joe Reibman a $7,000,000 check for the building and agree not to take any of our tax money. I u derstand that they can't force Reibman to take the Hyman deal but why would they continue to give out all of this tax money knowing that deal is available to Reibman? Aren't they really just paying the $4,000,000 difference between $7,000,000 and $11,000,000 with our tax payer money? At most, shouldn't they be giving Skyline $4,000,000 knowing Mr. Hyman is there to do the building with no TIF? Also has anyone approached Mr. Hyman and asked him to increase his offer? Maybe I'm missing something but this seems pretty obvious to me
So hopefully Mr. Warren can put all the speculation (pro and con) to bed at the next council meeting and explain to the public why he wasn’t there on Wednesday.
Problem solved, and no charge.
I was told he went to NYC to see a show. Apparently, he posts his entire life on social media. He is an internet star.
Wilson should be taken over by and made part of Easton.
Worst Council in County history. Lori spends more time on other business like CCAP and the FDWPA than she does on County business. She’s going to the National Conference of Counties in Tampa next week. No wonder she needs the Courts to do her job for her.
Anonymous 12:16 -
I wonder what the backstory is in Wilson for not finding a superintendent yet. You would think that there would be an assistant superintendent out there that they could pluck from a local district. Perhaps the local districts pay their assistants more than what Wilson is offering.
It absolutely is insane. Some of us in the Valley are watching this with a mixture of amusement and disgust. Sometimes you just have to follow the money. Unfortunately, we lack a real media nowadays. God bless this blog, but this is a story deserving of the front page of Mcall. Back in the day this entire debacle would have been picked apart by diligent reporters. There is a spectacular story here that is not being told. And I’m not sure if that story is a tale of incompetence or somebody’s pockets are being lined or a little bit of both possibilities. I do think the rest of the story will eventually come out, whatever that story is. McClure future political career will be shattered by this thing.
Ron Angle's the man to get the job done. Let's make Northampton County great again!
0ne would think the best use of those Dixie acres would be for Wilson School District to own it. It’s adjacent to the high school. Some time down the road, a new school building will be needed. What better site? Till then, a giant grassy area, plenty of paved
parking, more athletic fields.
" Lori spends more time on other business like CCAP and the FDWPA than she does on County business. She’s going to the National Conference of Counties in Tampa next week."
Thank you, Mr. Barron, for reading county council's emails and monitoring their phone calls. We need to keep following their moves.
10:45 am: Wilson should follow Easton’s example and just walk down the hallway asking “Who’s next?”
1:25 - the Morning Call has been too busy pushing National government propaganda and ultra Democrat Party policies. Anyone local still found contributing there has pretty much been muzzled.
If the Council vote is being delayed, then there is time to hire an expert on tax increment financing and development feasibility to examine this proposed deal. The Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. could probably provide that analysis for free, or they could recommend a person who is qualified to do it. Bethlehem (including Tony Hanna) also has decades of experience in reviewing these types of projects.
I keep being reminded of the half-finished minor league Northampton County baseball stadium that needed to be demolished, the contractors who were never paid for their work, and the baseball team that went bankrupt because they did not have a suitable place to play. In that case, the developer had insufficient experience and insufficient financial resources.
This Dixie deal appears to be crafted to convert tax dollars into up-front financial benefits for the the building owner (who let the building decay for years) and the developer (who has very limited experience in major development projects). The up-front payments are incredibly suspicious.
How about the $71 million going to Lehigh University? A real slap in our face.
In reference to the bonds issued for Lehigh University, this is a common process. County Authorities issue bonds on behalf of colleges and hospitals all of the time. The County is not liable for any of the payments, and the County Authority is simply a conduit to allow use of bonds that are exempt from income tax. The college or hospital pays the authority for the administrative costs, and no local tax dollars are involved.
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