At last week's NorCo Council meeting, Executive Tara Zrinski warned County Council that a tax hike is "increasingly likely" next year.
She acknowledged that neither taxpayers nor elected officials want a tax increase but said the county must balance the desire to keep taxes low with the responsibility to maintain services, support employees, and address long-deferred infrastructure needs.
She noted that the county’s millage rate has remained essentially flat at approximately 10.8 mills for many years, going all the way back to former Executive John Stoffa's first budget, in which he proposed a half-mill tax hike for a "pay as you go" open space program. After Stoffa, a one-mill tax hike was adopted when John Brown was Executive but was knocked back down to 10.8 mills when Brown was succeeded by Lamont McClure.
One of Zrinski's priorities will be to provide a meaningful cost-of-living raise to employees dealing with higher costs for groceries, utilities, healthcare and housing. She argued that competitive compensation is necessary to attract and retain employees. She highlighted particularly low wages among some county employees, including clerical positions paying approximately $32,000 annually and aide positions paying approximately $27,000. She also noted that employee benefits can cost approximately $21,000–$23,000 per employee, meaning the cost of benefits can approach the employee’s actual wages. "Wages have remained relatively stagnant, and for that, with the juxtaposition of the rising cost, we need to do something," she asserted.
She also acknowledged that there's a real problem correctional staffing and the "culture" at the jail, which I believe can be translated to poor morale. She added that the Civil War era lock-up is deteriorating and the county needs to decide whether to continue throwing money at it or just build a new one.
She also slammed the 2026 budget she inherited, which she insists "left important needs unfunded," including the retirement funds, Gracedale, the jail and even the Sheriff's office.
While pledging to keep the tax hike as low as possible, "We can't keep deferring investments in the people, buildings, equipment and systems our residents rely on. A responsible budget means making tough choices now."
A tax hike is also being considered in Lehigh County.
This blog is run by democrat voter that why it is a fake blog.
ReplyDeleteGo away Tricia.
DeleteShe slams McClure's budget but took his campaign contribution and kept him on the payroll. The lady doth protest too much.
ReplyDeleteWith 19 holidays, vacation, sick and personal time, County employees are currently required to work less than 10 months a year. They get paid for 12. You want to raise taxes to pay them more ?
ReplyDeleteSo then I take it you oppose paying more to the county workforce. That's odd bc every R on Council said the staff needed more $ and for several years.
DeleteWell Norco voters your hero Mcclueless has finally stuck it to you. You can't blame TZ for this. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that lazy lamounts 8 years of no tax increases would be unsustainable. He thought he was buying a congressional seat. That backfires on him and now it has backfired on you.
ReplyDeleteTZ, pay attention to the old saying: "If you want a quarter ask for 50 cents". You know council will fight you tooth and nail over this. Blame your predecessor at every turn. Go big.
ReplyDeleteZrinski is a heartless liar. You can easily tell who's lived on the dole vs those who've worked their asses off. If you're on a fixed income in NorCo, Zrinski hates your guts and her bulbous friend thinks your family is better off with you dead. The new county is really fantastic.
ReplyDeleteVery bizarre comment. I have no idea what this person is drinking at 6:58, but the comment makes no sense . But haters are gonna' hate. I don't even know who this "bulbous" person is, and the big complaint against Ds is that they only care about the elites and those who receive aid.
DeleteBrown wanted to build a new jail and everyone went nuts. A modern facility would use less energy and require less staff. They could also house for other counties and agencies to make money.
ReplyDeleteIt's where he wanted to build that had people upset as well as his complete lack of transparency on the topic and his secret meeting with UNT Supervisors.
DeleteZrinski has no intention of building new jail next year and said so in her report. But she also said we need to decide whether to build a new one, and we do. Just like we need to build a new Gracedale.
Big difference here is Tara isn’t asking for money for a social media team or to give money to politicians. This is all reasonable especially with how long it’s been since we’ve had an increase.
ReplyDeleteShe was involved on Council and as Controller
DeleteLong enough to know what was coming, but now it’s important?
Uhh yeah sure not entirely sure what you think you’re getting at here but taxes aren’t magic they go up if costs go up and they haven’t since Brown and then they actually went down. So yeah this is all shockingly reasonable
Delete17% in Lehigh. Let’s see how much for us. She needs to focus on the basic problems right now. Not Gracedale village or a new jail.
ReplyDeleteTZ has no choice. This is what happens when a terrible exec like McClure never raised taxes but borrowed from everywhere else. Mcclure could of slowly raised taxes but wanted to run on a failed campaign that he never raised taxes. Yes TZ has to help the county employee. Again 2 terrible execs before her. John Brown offering 1% and 2% raises, same with MCCLURE. Thats why every office is short. Impossible to catch back up on pay that was withheld by those 2 execs.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the tax hike is it should be as small as possible. The tax paying public doesn’t have extra property tax money laying around to give County employees a big raise.
ReplyDeleteI dis-agree. I think she should raise it at least 3 mils. How comes no one like you complains when the school district raises taxes every year and especially this comming year with the building of a new high school. That said -what is really needed is a county wide re-assessment and that is comming as well, so brace yourself.
Delete“She also slammed the 2026 budget she inherited, which she insists "left important needs unfunded," including the retirement funds, Gracedale, the jail and even the Sheriff's office.”
ReplyDeleteIf only the independent controller had spoken out against that budget forcefully when that budget was proposed, perhaps it could have been changed.
Oh, wait…
The problem isn’t that there was no tax hike for the last 8 years. As development has happened across the county, property tax revenue has actually increased, and is at record levels.
ReplyDeleteThe problem (as always) is that the former Executive, and Council, not only hasn’t cut spending, they’ve increased it!
The problem is NOT on the revenue side. Instead of lazily accepting a tax hike, Zrinski should be proposing the spending cuts that they’ve been ignoring for the last eight years.
By the way, you know what seniors in Northampton and Bethlehem like more than a senior center? NOT being forced out of their homes because they can’t pay the taxes!
Zrinski knew what was coming, but never spoke out about it.
ReplyDeleteUm, she wrote a memo about it and appeared before Council to complain about the 2026 budget before it was adopted, but you will blame her no matter what she does.
DeleteThere's no hatred of taxpayers in the setting of tax rates. There is a need to offer competitive pay and benefits to staff the County. The undercurrent among a decent share of the populace is that the County does not "do" anything or do anything right, and that the workforce is bloated by Wayne Grube's "hallwalkers." So a tax increase, however necessary, is a political liability for the Exec and County Council. You can see it in these comments.
ReplyDeleteThis is a first. Wayne Grube detested what he called hallwalkers and probably coined the term. He sometimes would stand at the courthouse lobby at 8:30 am to see who was late.
DeleteCounty taxes are nothing compared to schools district taxes. Especially when kids cant read or write after all the money given to schools! I would love someone to talk about that ! And its true fixed income cant pay all these taxes . Spoke to someone yesterday who has to move out of her home as cant afford all the taxes. Very sad
ReplyDeleteAgreed, school taxes are where the problem is. Always with new astroturf fields, administration buildings, auxillary staff, etc. I'm in Nazareth school district and the school taxes are something like 4 times what the county's are. A 10% county tax hike for me would be loke...12 bucks a month? Not great as someone of modest means, it's not going to break my back.
DeleteRaise them 1 mil and in 3 years you’ll have 100 million dollar surpluses again.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see Tara or her nose at the Pen Argyl parade on Monday. She's probably certain she'd have been booed mercilessly by a population that hates her guts. Brooks had the nerve to show up at a volunteers parade. He was throwing candy at kids and possibly calling their parents scumbags. I saw a volunteer firefighter received recognition for his efforts on 9/11. I suppose he's another scumbag to Brooks, who'd run away crying from the flames in a gas grill.
ReplyDeleteI just hope she has the courage to place the blame exactly where it should be placed. At Lamont feet.He has destroyed this county financially . And also in the way county responsibilities can't get done because of lack of staff at departments.
ReplyDeleteWe talk about the issues at gracedale. How's the staff there. The 911 center. The JJC, and please don't get started on the jail. What happens behind the walls stays behind the walls correct.
I saw her get emotional while saying what she had to say. But she should know it wasn't her fault and place the blame where it deserves to be placed.
How she keeps that man employed by the county and can speak to him is beyond me. He just ruined her political career.